


Linked

by vio1et



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vio1et/pseuds/vio1et
Summary: Kino daydreams all day, every day about finding his link: the person who, when he looks them in the eyes, he will form a telepathic connection. People who are linked are said to be soulmates and each other’s perfect match. It’s everything Kino wants, and everything he doesn’t have.
Relationships: Jung Wooseok/Kang Hyunggu | Kino
Comments: 6
Kudos: 68





	Linked

**Author's Note:**

> RN is kinda a sad time to be a ptg stan, but i’ve had this WIP in my folder for a while and finally found the motivation to finish it!!!!! (i also have a jinho centric WIP i wanted to finish soon but his enlistment makes me too sad to work on it lol T___T) 
> 
> also sorry i have literally never written a fic where pentagon have the right separation in their ages LOL 
> 
> thank u for reading :)
> 
> p.s. this is my first time passing 20k words on a fic o_o

Kino is sick of waiting. He wasn’t the only one, and impatience was hardly an unpopular personality flaw, but he couldn’t take it anymore. Kino has been daydreaming of meeting his Prince Charming as long as he could remember. He would be tall and charismatic. He’d have dark hair and eyes you could get lost in. Most importantly, his thoughts would ring in Kino’s mind from the moment they met. 

It was a love story everybody wanted. You find your link, and you’ll be able to hear their thoughts from the first time you make eye contact. They’re your soulmate, your perfect match. It was a goal for every true romantic, and Kino definitely fell into that category, especially since his own parents were linked. He grew up watching them and seeing how perfect they were for each other. He wanted the same. 

At first, holding out for his link was normal; in high school, almost everyone thought they would marry their link. That was their one true love, after all! As they got older, more and more people started dating and falling in love despite having never met their link. Kino couldn’t understand it. Why waste your time with other people? 

Even his own friends didn’t seem to care about their mythical links. Some dated around, insisting they needed _experience_ for if they ever met their match. Others thought links were bullshit. One had claimed he was just having fun until he met his link, then he’d proceeded to get engaged to the girl he was dating. It seemed Kino was the only one who even cared if he found his link or not. Then, Hui met Shinwon. 

As the story went, Hui, after a long day of work, got onto the elevator to leave the building his office was in. Shinwon, already inside, looked over to Hui to ask him what level of the parking garage he was on so he could push the elevator button for him. Before Hui could reply, his head started throbbing and he could hear a faint voice in the back of his head telling him _cute, but short_. Hui made the connection, and the rest was history. 

It seemed so random. When Kino first heard Hui tell the story, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. He wasn’t jealous. At least, he didn’t want to be. But why did Hui get to meet _his_ link? Hui had never actively searched for him. Kino made eye contact with every person he could: on the train, in class, at cafes. 

Hui had always thought all of Kino’s efforts were ridiculous. He’d made fun of Kino for his desperation a hundred times. Hui always said that, if something was really meant to happen, it would just happen. Kino had never once believed him, but now, Hui had found his match. Kino had never even had a real boyfriend. 

It had been almost a year since Hui and Shinwon met now, and they were attached at the hip. Every time Kino wanted to hang out, Hui would bring Shinwon along. Hui rapidly went from not caring if he ever found his link to spending all of his time with him. Kino swore he was happy for Hui. He just didn’t think this was fair. 

So, Kino sits at his and his friends’ usual table at their favorite diner with Shinwon, awaiting the arrival of Hui. Despite his internal turmoil, Kino had grown to really like Shinwon. This, of course, only made him more serious about finding his link. Shinwon was funny and weird and somehow perfect for Hui, just like his parents were for each other. 

“Ki,” Shinwon sings, reaching across the table and poking Kino’s cheek to get his attention. Kino looks back at Shinwon, trying to shake off all of his daydreams about finding his link. “We should order pancakes.”

“Okay,” Kino mumbles, rubbing his eyes thoughtlessly. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

“Are you okay?” Shinwon asks, closing his menu and giving Kino his full attention. 

“I’m fine,” Kino insists. He quickly realizes he needs to distract Shinwon before he starts giving him life advice. “Are you and Hui gonna do anything to celebrate your first anniversary? It’s soon, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Shinwon confirms. “I don’t know. You know Hui. That’s really more his speed than mine.”

“It’d probably make him happy if you would plan something every once in a while, you know,” Kino suggests, fixing his hair absentmindedly. 

“You think I should plan something? What if he already planned something?” Shinwon asks. Kino winces. 

“Maybe it’s not a good idea,” Kino concedes with a little nod. 

“I’ll just buy him something nice. That’s all Hui really wants anyway: stuff,” Shinwon decides with a sigh. “He’s really materialistic, you know.”

“You both are,” Kino informs him before taking a sip of his coffee. “Where is he, anyway?”

“What am I, his keeper?” Shinwon says with a scoff. 

Kino just fixes his gaze on the door. He wanted to make eye contact with any new patrons who happened to walk into the diner. 

“What are you doing?” Shinwon says after a few moments. Kino instantly feels his cheeks flush. 

“Daydreaming, sorry,” Kino mumbles in response. Shinwon frowns. 

“Kino,” he says sternly, “you are not going to meet your link in this diner today. I promise you that.”

Kino clenched his jaw. His embarrassment fades into annoyance, quicker than he thought possible. 

“How do you know?” he snips. 

“The same people eat in this diner every time we’re here,” Shinwon explains, “and I know you’ve already made eye contact with all of them, so just relax.” 

Kino sighed, letting his anger flutter away. Shinwon was right. Maybe he’d meet his link today, but not in this diner, surrounded by the same regulars that were in here every time Kino came by. 

“Is Wooseok coming today?”

Kino just shrugs in response. Wooseok had been Kino’s best friend for most of his life, but they’d gotten even closer now that most of their friends had started settling down. Wooseok was the only person in their friend group who also had zero romantic prospects, meaning he was always Kino’s date to weddings and the person he called whenever he had no one to see a movie or concert with. 

“You know he never wakes up this early. Why?” 

“Just think you need to see him is all,” Shinwon says with a tiny smile. Kino kicks him under the table. 

“I’ve told you a hundred times—”

“I know, I know. You’re very dedicated to finding your link, yada yada yada,” Shinwon says dryly. “I just think that you two have been on enough friend dates to consider going on a real date.” 

“It’s not like that,” Kino insists. 

He really did mean it. Don’t get Kino wrong; Wooseok was great. He was cute and sweet, and he could always make Kino laugh, even without telling any jokes. In some other life, Kino could see them together, but, in this life, they just weren’t a match. He knew that because he’d looked Wooseok in the eyes for the sole purpose of checking multiple times, starting when they were in middle school. 

“It _could be_ like that, which is my point,” Shinwon clarifies with a sigh. “I dated people before Hui, you know, and I don’t regret that, even if they weren’t my link. A relationship can be fulfilling and make you happy without all that.”

“Not for me,” Kino declares. How was he supposed to settle? All that waiting, all that fantasizing, all just to end up dating someone who he always knew wasn’t his soulmate. 

Shinwon just shakes his head, clearly giving up on the conversation. 

Hui arrives soon after, and he inadvertently makes Kino feel even worse than he already does by sliding in next to Shinwon and kissing him good morning. As soon as he pulls away, Shinwon rests a hand on his neck to signal to him to look into his eyes. Kino clenched his jaw in jealousy. 

“Are you talking about me right in front of me?” Kino asks. Hui shakes his head, wrapping an arm around Shinwon before turning to look at Kino. 

“Why would we be talking about you?” Hui wonders. Kino’s mouth contorts in chagrin. 

“I– no reason,” Kino mumbles. 

“You’re projecting about this stupid link thing again,” Hui complains. “Honestly, Kino, can’t you just let life happen?” 

“Oh, yeah. Awesome advice. I’ll just sit here and see what happens!” Kino grates sarcastically. 

“That’s what I did,” Hui reminds him. He gestures to him and Shinwon wildly. “It worked.”

Kino rolls his eyes. He spends most of the rest of breakfast in silence, only interjecting every once in a while. It was hard not to be pissed at Hui. He knew Hui’s constant discouragements toward looking for his link came from a place of concern, but Hui was still a person who had _everything_ getting onto Kino for wanting that same happiness. It wasn’t fair. 

When their checks finally come, Kino immediately grabs his and goes to the register to pay for his meal. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Once he receives his change, he only gives Hui and Shinwon a little wave in their direction before leaving the diner completely and heading back on his path home. Usually, he’d consider using a Saturday afternoon to go read somewhere in public where he would encounter a lot of new people to attempt to link with. Today, he just sorta wanted to go home.

“Kino! Wait!” Shinwon calls, following Kino out of the restaurant. Hui was nowhere to be found, which was odd for the two of them, to say the least.

“What’s wrong?” Kino says. He turns around to look at Shinwon, expecting to see him holding Kino’s wallet or phone or something else he had forgotten. 

"Listen, I don't want you to think I'm like Hui where I never worried about meeting my link," Shinwon admits. "I know how you feel. I dated other people, but I always wondered about _him_ , you know?"

Kino nodded. He guessed that was how most people did it; maybe not everyone was as completely consumed by searching for their link as Kino was, but _everyone_ wanted to find their soulmate. Kino knew the thought had to linger in the back of people's heads even after they married other people.

"This is going to sound silly, but I want to say it, okay?" Shinwon warns, the hesitation in his voice obvious.

"Okay," Kino mouths back. Shinwon was a strange guy; he always had been. It was hard not to be a little cautious when even _he_ thought something was silly.

"When I was in high school, I went to this fortune teller by the boardwalk. Her name is Madam Luna," Shinwon recounts. For a split second, the thought is ludicrous, even to Kino, but he supposed there were stranger things in this world than psychics. "I asked her when I would meet my soulmate. She told me we would encounter each other at work, but we wouldn't be colleagues."

Kino squints, thinking back to the story of Hui and Shinwon and the elevator. They had always worked in the same building but had never met.

"So, what? You think she saw you and Hui in her little crystal ball?" Kino attempts to clarify. Shinwon shrugs.

"Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe it wasn't. But I never believed her, and she was right," Shinwon explains. "It might give you some peace of mind, to believe in her and believe you know where he'll be. You could have breakfast with your friends without checking out random people dining nearby." 

Kino pauses. Was this rock bottom? Was asking a _fortune teller_ to find him a boyfriend the lowest he could go? For a minute, he really thinks so, but then, he thinks about Hui and Shinwon and how _happy_ they are. He thinks about how Hui never had to force that to happen. Maybe seeing this Madam Luna was a good idea. 

"Okay," he says finally. "By the boardwalk?"

"By the boardwalk."

"Thanks," Kino says quietly. Shinwon gives him a little nod, and, seconds later, Hui exits the diner and approaches them, slinging an arm around Shinwon in the process. 

"You sure bolted quickly when it came time to pay," Hui teases Shinwon, squeezing his side in the process. Kino sighed. Madam Luna seemed like a better option by the minute.

"I've gotta go," Kino mumbles. "I'll text you later."

Hui does a little wave in response, and Kino quickly turns on his heel and begins to power walk away as rapidly as he can without looking like a freak. God, he needed more friends so he wasn't third-wheeling Hui constantly.

As he walks away, in no direction in particular and with no real vision for the rest of the day, it occurs to Kino he was only a ten or so minute walk away from the piers. What harm could it do? Worst case scenario, this all becomes a funny story he can tell Wooseok later. He could hear himself now: _Some crazy lady told me that I'm going to meet my soulmate at Costco!_ What was the difference between this and when they'd play with Ouija boards as teenagers? 

Before Kino can really make a decision on whether Madam Luna is legitimate or not, he realizes his legs have made up their own mind and he's absently headed toward Madam Luna's shop. He convinces himself he can't turn back at that point. It would be _hundreds_ of extra steps to turn back for his apartment now! 

When he reaches the street of retail shops near the boardwalk, he finds Madam Luna's shop right away. In fact, he's a little creeped out that he never noticed it before. The window display was filled with spooky things like crystals and tarot cards and prayer candles, and the neon sign marking her shop had a big, light-up full moon next to the words _The Clairvoyant Madam Luna's Fortune Readings and Divination Supply_.

Right as he turns the door handle to enter the shop, it occurs to him that a psychic being open at ten in the morning was a bit bizarre, but he pushes that thought out of his mind and tries to just focus on finding his link.

“Hello?” he says as he steps into the shop. It was dark, dusty and absolutely the kind of place Kino didn’t like to find himself in. The walls were lined with shelving that carried what Kino figures must be ingredients for potions. Were fortune tellers also witches? All Kino really knows is that if you wanted bottled oregano it would probably be cheaper to just go to the grocery store. 

In the center of the room, there was a round, wooden table with a single candle, a deck of cards and a row of various crystals. Kino imagined Madam Luna pulling his fortune from the cards like in the movies. This all felt ridiculous to him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d known how Hui and Shinwon would meet _years_ before it happened. That had to mean something, right? It had to. 

After a few moments, an older woman with long, black hair and her body wrapped up in a flowing robe appears behind the counter. Kino thought she sort of looked like she’d be sleeping in the back, judging by her under eye circles and messy hair.

“Welcome to Madam Luna’s,” she greets dryly as she partakes in a pointless attempt to fix her hair. Kino appreciated the effort, he supposed. “How can the mistress of the moon be of service to you?”

Kino took a deep breath. How was an old lady in her pajamas making him so nervous?

“A friend of mine told me you helped him find his link,” Kino informs her.

“His soulmate?” she asks. Kino nods.

“Right, yeah,” Kino confirms. “I really want to meet mine, too. He said you told him when they would meet.”

“I can do that,” she agrees with a huff. “Is that all you want?”

Kino nods.

“Ten,” she states. 

“Ten?”

“I’ll do the reading for ten,” she elaborates. Kino raises his eyebrows. Had Shinwon really found Hui for _ten dollars_? 

He doesn’t question her, though. He pulls his wallet out of his bag and hands her over a ten dollar bill. At that price, he really didn’t have anything to lose. 

She takes the bill, shoves it into the pocket of her robes, then walks out from behind the counter and leads Kino over to the round table he’d noticed before. Kino takes the seat across from her, suddenly a ball of anxiety. If Madam Luna was the real deal, this was it. He was going to finally know his path to his link, right here in this creepy shop. 

Madam Luna lights the candle in the center of the table, then takes Kino’s hand into her own and closes her eyes. 

“What’s your name?” she asks. 

“Kino,” he replies. 

“Kino,” she repeats back to him. He feels weird, watching her like this, but he didn’t know where else he could look. He also hated holding her cold, wrinkled hands, but he couldn’t exactly pull away. “Your friend you mentioned… Are you close?”

“Not really,” Kino admits. “He’s my friend's boyfriend.”

“His boyfriend is your best friend?” 

“One of them,” he confirms. 

“You have another one?”

“Yes,” he decides. 

“Hmm,” she mutters. For a while, there was silence. Madam Luna squeezes Kino’s hand and focuses on the _spirits_ or whatever, and Kino just wishes this could all happen a little faster

Suddenly, she opens her eyes and pulls her hand away. 

“You’ve already met your soulmate, child,” Madam Luna announces. Kino’s entire face gets a little rounder as his eyelids retract completely and his jaw loosens. 

“That’s not possible,” he assures her. “I have been _diligent_ about checking everyone I know.”

“Not diligent enough!” she sings back. “You went to school with him.”

“ _School_?” Kino practically gasps. “Like, high school?”

She nods, pushing a section of her long, dark hair out of her face. Kino could feel his heartbeat in his throat. Was it really possible he’d been that close the entire time? Without Shinwon’s testimony, Kino never would’ve believed her, not for a minute. 

“Are you sure?” Kino asks. Madam Luna crosses her arms, then blows out the candle between them. 

“I have _never_ been wrong,” she says, clearly annoyed anyone would _dare_ to question the ten dollar psychic on the boardwalk. “Your soulmate went to high school with you. He was in your homeroom. Now, get out of my shop.”

Kino is taken aback, but he supposed she wasn’t the first old lady to get defensive about her abilities. He thanks her, then grabs his bag and leaves the shop as quickly as he can. 

The first thing Kino does when he gets outside is call Wooseok. When he doesn’t pick up, Kino calls him again. And again. And again. He’s on his sixth call whenever Wooseok’s groggy, little _hello?_ floats into his ear. 

“Oh, good! You’re up!” Kino sings. Wooseok offers him a dry, sarcastic laugh. “Meet me at my apartment.”

“Why? It’s Saturday, Kino. I wanna sleep,” he announces. Kino wished he could pout over the phone. Looking sad was the easiest way to get Wooseok to do whatever you wanted. 

“I need your help,” he begs. Wooseok sighs. 

“Okay. I’m coming,” Wooseok agrees reluctantly. Kino knew he could always count on Wooseok, at least.

Kino practically sprints the two miles back to his apartment. He was, admittedly, very excited. While he went to Madam Luna expecting a vague answer that would only keep him wondering when he’d meet his link, he’d returned with thirteen candidates. If Madam Luna was who she claimed to be, Kino could know who his link was by Monday. 

When he gets inside his apartment, he immediately grabs his high school yearbook and flips to the page with the students from his homeroom. Glancing them over quickly, he wasn’t sure he saw his soulmate. The only person he’d ever wanted to hang out with in high school was Wooseok. None of the other guys had held his attention the same way. 

Nonetheless, Kino begins to scan their pictures. When he has all the files on his computer, he prints each of his classmate’s portraits out on a sheet of paper. Soon, he begins hanging them up, all in preparation of the day ahead of him and Wooseok.

Just as Kino finishes gathering the necessary supplies, he hears a knock at the door. He prances to the front of his apartment, ecstatic that soon they could begin their search. 

“Hey,” Wooseok grumbles, pushing his way into Kino’s apartment as soon as he opened the door. Kino didn’t even think he’d showered, just changed into jeans and stumbled over. 

“You could wait for me to invite you in!” Kino says, closing the door behind them. 

“Knocking first was my courtesy to you,” Wooseok insists, pulling his hoodie down out of his hair. This was typical Wooseok, sleepy and disheveled. 

“You’re a hero,” Kino jokes. 

He leads Wooseok over to his kitchen table, but the sight of every boy in their class’s high school portrait taped to the wall makes Wooseok burst out laughing immediately. 

“What is this?” Wooseok asks. There were fourteen pictures in total. Kino’s was at the very top, and Wooseok’s was taped beneath it. The other twelve were in a straight line across the wall, beneath both of their portraits. “Are you conducting a murder investigation?”

“I’m looking for my link, asshole,” Kino snaps. 

“Oh, my bad. That makes total, logical sense as to why you have a serial killer wall in your kitchen now,” Wooseok jokes, running a hand through his hair as he examined all the portraits. If Kino hadn’t thought about most of these people since high school, it was safe to say Wooseok had never thought about them at all.

“Shinwon told me that, when he was in high school, he spoke to a psychic on the boardwalk,” Kino explains. “She told him that he would meet his soulmate at work, but they wouldn’t be colleagues.”

“So?” Wooseok says. Kino couldn’t tell if he wasn’t following or just thought this was stupid.

“So? So, that’s exactly what happened! He and Hui met in the elevator! They work for different companies in the same building!” Kino exclaims.

“What does this have to do with your serial killer wall, Kino?” Wooseok specifies, gesturing to the creepy photos mounted in the kitchen. 

“I saw her, and she told me I met my link in high school. She said we were in the same _class_ , Wooseok,” Kino admits. “We have to find him.”

Kino can feel Wooseok holding back an eye roll. Wooseok had never really been enthusiastic about links as a concept. He’d never held Kino back from looking for his link, but Wooseok had certainly never joined in on Kino’s extensive efforts. Kino always found it odd, since Wooseok also didn’t engage in a lot of romantic pursuits outside of looking for his link, either. 

“So, I assume this line” —Wooseok points to his own photo— “is for the rejects.” 

“Not a reject, just not my link,” Kino confirms. 

“Are we sure?” Wooseok ponders with a laugh. He takes both his hands and cups Kino’s cheeks, forcing them to lock eyes. “Do you hear anything?”

“I think you’re making fun of me which is _mean_ ,” Kino decides, hitting Wooseok’s hands away, “but, no, I don’t hear anything. It’s my goal to test all these guys until I find my link.”

Wooseok pauses. The one thing that could never be doubted was that he cared about Kino, at least. 

“What do you need me to do?” he asks. Kino grins. 

“Have any weekend plans?” Kino wonders. 

“Not anymore,” Wooseok replies. 

Kino thinks there’s something to be said about the way Wooseok was willing to help him with this, even if he didn’t care about links and even if his first thought was that it was stupid. Even Kino, who prided himself on his loyalty and dedication to his friends, would probably have laughed at all this and refused. Wooseok wasn’t like that. 

“I’m thinking we start with cyber research,” Kino says, gesturing to his laptop on his kitchen table. “We need to figure out who we can go see today.”

“ _Today?_ ” Wooseok repeats. Kino nods. 

“I’m sick of waiting around, Wooseok! By the end of this weekend, we’re going to find my link. I’m sure of it,” Kino declares. Wooseok nods, but Kino can tell he doesn’t share Kino’s enthusiasm. Whether it was because he didn’t believe in psychics or because he didn’t like the idea of stalking people they knew in high school, though, Kino couldn’t tell. 

“Okay, fine,” Wooseok agrees. “What am I looking for?” 

“Glad you asked!” Kino sings. He grabs his notebook off of the table and flips it open to a page labeled “INTEL.” Wooseok groans audibly. “First, we need to know if they’re still in town.”

“Right, so we can stalk them,” Wooseok confirms, burying his face into his hands. 

“So we can _investigate_ them,” Kino corrects. “Also, we need to know what they’ve been up to since high school.”

“Why do we need to know that?” Wooseok asks. “Won’t you find that out yourself if they’re your link? That’s a part of dating, Kino.”

“ _Because_ ,” he scowls. “What if he’s married? or in a long-term relationship, even? I need to be cautious here.”

“What are you gonna do, then?” Wooseok retorts. “If he’s married, I mean, are you really going to try and break up a marriage?” 

“ _No_ ,” Kino insists. “Well–”

“Kino–”

“I’m just kidding!” Kino claims, though Wooseok is still looking at him through furrowed eyebrows. “Maybe.”

“Kino!” 

“Look, he’s my soulmate, isn’t he?” Kino reasons. “I’m not going to do anything, but don’t you think it’s kinda messed up if _my_ soulmate is married to someone else?”

Wooseok doesn’t say anything, and Kino hopes it’s because he can’t argue with that statement. A part of him knows, though, that Wooseok isn’t replying because he couldn’t agree less. 

“Okay, I’ll start from the left, and you take the right?” Wooseok says suddenly in a thinly veiled attempt to change the subject. 

“Okay!” 

Wooseok grabs the spare spiral off Kino’s table and sits down next to where Kino’s laptop was set up. He begins to look up their classmates and write down what he finds in the notebook. Kino does the same, though he uses his laptop and a word document. 

The very first person Kino searches for is Yeo Changgu. In truth, Kino had real doubts _this_ was his match. Sure, Changgu was cute, but he and Kino had done nothing but fight when they were in high school. Well, Kino used _fight_ loosely. They were always in competition for top spots in their class and had even both run for class president. Naturally, Kino got petty about it. He would always gloat whenever he bested Changgu. Changgu took the higher road every time, which only made Kino more angry. 

As Kino scrolls through Changgu’s Instagram, he only gets annoyed again. He’d completed his undergraduate degree early _and_ had gone to pharmacy school. _God, what a try-hard_. The more Kino looks at Changgu’s profile, the more he thinks they aren’t a match. How could he ever be with someone who was so similar to himself? Kino shivered imagining the sorts of neurotic things he would do if someone was around to encourage him to do it. He’d probably have alphabetized his medicine cabinet by now. 

He sees that Changgu still lives in the city, and he pauses. Guess he had to start somewhere. 

“Dare me to ask Yeo Changgu if he wants to meet up?” Kino asks. 

“Uhh, no?” Wooseok replies with a laugh. “C’mon, Kino, you _hate_ that guy.” 

“But he could be my match!” Kino declares. 

“You think you never looked him in the eyes in high school? Get real,” Wooseok urges him with an eyeroll. “Even if he was your match, do you really want to date that guy?” 

“I mean, he’s a _pharmacist_ now,” Kino points out. 

“A pharmacist?” Wooseok repeats. Kino nods. “Message him.”

Kino giggles, following Changgu’s account before sending him a direct message. 

_Hey Changgu! It’s been a long time. Are you still in the city? If so, I would love to get coffee this afternoon._

“Sent!” he sings. 

“I will give you one guess what fucking Adachi Yuto does for a living,” Wooseok enthuses. 

“Nothing where he has to wear sleeves,” Kino guesses with a laugh. “I swear, that guy was obsessed with his own arms.”

“Being sleeveless is not a job,” Wooseok says with an eyeroll. “He’s a sports journalist.”

“A journalist? Yuto?” Kino queries. “He’s probably the only person on this list I actually never made eye contact with because he _never said anything_.” 

“Fuck, does that mean he’s your match?” 

Kino and Wooseok both pause, realizing that, in all likelihood, if the psychic really was telling the truth, Yuto had to be the most likely candidate for Kino’s link. It made sense, didn’t it? If they’d never looked each other in the eyes, they wouldn’t know they were linked. 

“What paper does he work at?” Kino asks. 

“It’s Saturday,” Wooseok reminds him. Kino processes that for a second. 

“What sport does he cover?” Kino quips. 

“Baseball,” Wooseok informs him miserably. “Are we really going to a game?” 

“Yup,” Kino confirms. 

Before Wooseok can even argue with himself about whether or not Kino is kidding, Kino has pulled up their local baseball team’s website. He navigates to the **TICKETS** tab. 

“Do you want to sit by third base or in the outfield?” Kino ponders, scrolling over the different sections to see what seats are available. 

“Third base,” Wooseok replies, “but you do know he’s going to be in the press box, right? It’s not connected.”

“So? I’ll figure that out when we get there,” Kino decides. Wooseok watches as he puts two tickets in his cart and checks out. “Only thirty dollars total? A small price to pay for true love.”

“I hate you,” Wooseok grumbles. Kino just happily checks his email to find his digital tickets have already been emailed to him. 

The two continue to investigate the other boys from their homeroom. One is a lawyer, which Kino thinks is sort of charming. Wooseok thinks that makes him a snake. Another owns a restaurant. Kino likes that he can cook; Wooseok wonders about the stability of owning a small business. One works in finance, another is a dentist. Kino daydreams about the possibilities with both, and Wooseok pokes holes into his dreams. 

“Oh, Yang Hongseok,” Kino sighs dreamily as he scrolls through his posts. “He might’ve been a late bloomer, but he’s so worldly and sculpted by god now.” 

“ _Worldly_ ,” Wooseok repeats with a scoff. “What does that even mean? Rich enough to travel?”

“Yes,” Kino confirms. “He speaks, like, four languages, you know.”

“So? You don’t speak three of them,” Wooseok mocks. Kino elbows him. “What if, when you finally look him in the eyes, you actually hear his thoughts but they’re in a language you don’t speak?” 

“Doesn’t matter,” Kino assures him. “I don’t care what his thoughts are, just that they’re there.”

“You don’t care about... actually hearing your link’s thoughts?” Wooseok summarizes, puzzled by what Kino was telling him. “Then why are we doing this?” 

“Because it’s not about hearing their thoughts,” Kino reasons. “I want to fall in love, not be a mind reader.”

Wooseok just looks at him for a minute, then shakes his head in defeat. Kino can see he doesn’t want to discuss the topic further.

“Does Hongseok have a job or is being sexy and going on vacation supposed to be a career?” Wooseok asks. 

“He owns a bookstore,” Kino announces. “I love to read, you know.”

“I know. _I’m_ basically illiterate,” Wooseok reminds him with a tiny smile. Kino had tried to get Wooseok to read all his favorite books, but it’d been a long, hard process because Wooseok wasn’t so great at sitting still or paying attention to one thing at a time. Eventually, he’d listened to most of Kino’s recommendations on tape. Kino would probably never forget that. Most people just ignored the books he recommended. 

“You do your best,” Kino observes, reaching over and squeezing Wooseok’s palm reassuringly. Wooseok pulls his hand away quickly, and Kino looks over at Wooseok just in time to see him hiding his flushed cheeks in his hood. Kino felt bad to have embarrassed Wooseok, but he genuinely did think the effort Wooseok made was sweet. 

Kino decides to let the moment pass to spare Wooseok’s feelings, and soon, they’re each looking at their last candidates. 

“Yanan... any guesses what he’s up to besides being gorgeous and unattainable?” Kino prompts. Wooseok shrugs. 

“Being inexplicably wealthy,” Wooseok suggests. 

Kino laughs and begins to scroll through Yanan’s profile, and his eyes slowly widen in shock. 

“What?” Wooseok asks, leaning over. 

“Well, his wealth definitely isn’t inexplicable,” Kino declares as they view Yanan’s profile, which is filled with pictures of him and his fiancé, who looked to be in his seventies. 

“Good for him,” Wooseok states, though Kino can’t quite tell if he’s being sarcastic or genuine. 

“You know, if Yanan, the love of my life, wants to marry some old dude for economic reasons, I’m fine with that,” Kino announces. “He will most likely still be hot in ten years when his husband keels over.” 

“I don’t know how to break this to you, but rich, old people live to like a hundred now,” Wooseok says. Kino screams in frustration. “Besides, if high school was any indication, you could be communicating with Yanan exclusively telepathically, and he still wouldn’t notice you.” 

The jab wasn’t exactly inaccurate. Yanan had been popular from the minute they’d enrolled in high school. Even as a freshman, he was hanging out with seniors and throwing cool parties. His profile page even indicated he was an event planner now, which seemed like the perfect job for someone as otherworldly as Yanan. 

“Thanks,” Kino mumbles bitterly in response. “Did you find anything on Jinho?”

“He works in IT,” Wooseok explains, “so unless you’re going to skip work on Monday to break into his office, that’s another one you need to message.”

“Check this out,” Kino instructs. Wooseok leans over and rests his head on Kino’s shoulder. He watches as Kino copies the message he sent Changgu, changes the name to read ‘Jinho,’ then sends the message again. Both boys crack up in turn. 

“What if they both want to get coffee this afternoon?” Wooseok asks, covering his mouth with his hand to stifle his own laughter. 

“Then we’re meeting Changgu at one sharp and Jinho at half past one,” Kino says as though it’s completely and totally obvious. Wooseok just laughs.

“ _We_? I get to come to meet your soulmate?” Wooseok concludes. Kino nods. 

“I need moral support,” Kino reasons. “How the _hell_ am I gonna convince myself to go on a coffee date with _Yeo Changgu_ without you to shove me through the door?”

“True,” Wooseok concedes. “At least he’ll probably buy your latte.” 

There’s a _ping_ noise from Kino’s computer, and he rushes to check his inbox. Wooseok was beginning to wonder if Kino was looking for his soulmate or just having fun pretending to be Nev from _Catfish_. 

“Speak of the devil!” Kino shrieks. He reads through the message, instantly repulsed by its contents. “Changgu wants to meet for dinner tomorrow night.”

“He’s literally a doctor now and still simping for you,” Wooseok sneered. 

“I don’t like the word ‘still’ there,” Kino barks. 

“Me either,” Wooseok agrees, “but it’s the truth.” 

“We didn’t even get along in high school,” Kino recalls. 

“A lot of guys are attracted to people who are not interested in them,” Wooseok reasons. Kino just scowls.

“Whatever. I’m agreeing,” Kino announces. As he’s typing up his response to Changgu, Wooseok hears another ping from Kino’s computer. After Kino stops typing, there’s a pause while he reads the message. “Oh, our date with Jinho is at two this afternoon.”

“Will you stop saying _our_?” Wooseok laughs. 

“This is a joint effort!” Kino declares. “Just like how _we_ are heading over to Hongseok’s bookstore right now so we can find out if he’s my soulmate.”

“Right now?” Wooseok groans. 

“Yes! If he’s my soulmate, I need to cancel on Jinho,” Kino reasons. Wooseok just nods in agreement. What else could he really do at that point? “Let’s go.”

Wooseok grabs his keys and leads Kino out of his apartment and down to Wooseok’s car. He doesn’t put up any sort of argument. Kino had made up his mind, and, whenever that happened, there was no use fighting with him. If you did, to Kino, you were no longer on his side. Instead, you were just another person holding him back. 

Kino spends the entire drive over trying to remember _any_ conversations he and Hongseok had had in high school and comes up blank. Maybe the fortune teller was right. Maybe Kino hadn’t ever really known anybody he went to high school with at all. 

“What do you remember most about Hongseok?” Kino asks, glancing over at Wooseok, who had spent the ride prior to that listening to his music and tapping on the steering wheel. 

“His locker was next to mine when we were sophomores,” Wooseok recalls. “He would always narrate everything he did. It drove me insane.” 

“Narrate?” Kino repeats with a grin. 

“Yeah, he’d stand there and whisper to himself,” Wooseok explains as he pulled the car into a parking spot. “He’d talk about putting books away and running late. At first, I thought he was talking to me, and I’d reply to him.”

“That’s so bizarre,” Kino says, stifling back a laugh. He liked the mental image of that, especially when you factored in what a _nerd_ Wooseok had been for most of his life. It was difficult to convince the guy who built lego models as a hobby that you were a weirdo, but Hongseok had achieved it. 

Still, everyone knew Hongseok had grown up. He’d found a lot more confidence as he’d gotten more handsome with age. Plus, his family was well-off, so he’d been able to spend most of his time pursuing the passion project that was his bookstore. When he wasn’t at his bookstore, he was on vacation. He was a catch, to say the least. 

As they approach the door of _Caulfield Classics_ , Kino starts to feel the gravity of the situation weighing down on him. His soulmate could be inside. Was this really how Kino wanted to come back into his life, by stalking him after a supposed psychic tipped him off?

“Are you okay?” Wooseok asks, stopping and turning to look at Kino. Kino just nodded. He couldn’t tell Wooseok how scared he was; Wooseok would think it was silly. 

After Wooseok pushes his way inside, he immediately looks for Hongseok. Upon spotting him at the back of the shop, hunched over a book, Wooseok attempts to approach him, but Kino just grabs Wooseok by his wrist and pulls him behind a shelf. 

“What are you doing? He’s the whole reason we’re here,” Wooseok whispers in frustration as he pulled his arm away. Kino just bit his lip. 

“I need a second, okay?” Kino snaps. Wooseok sighed, turning to look at the books on the shelf beside them. Naturally, he doesn’t recognize any of the titles and gets overwhelmed. 

“Oh, Wooseok, you need to read this one,” Kino mumbles, pulling a bright green book covered in flowers off the shelf. 

“ _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ ,” Wooseok reads, gently touching the raised lettering on the cover as he spoke. 

“It’s so good. You would love it–”

“This feels like deflection,” Wooseok accuses, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. 

Kino bit his lip with a little nod. He takes the book from Wooseok, looking over the back of the novel again. 

“It really is good,” he offers as a weak assurance, “and I do think you’d like it.” 

“Kino,” Wooseok says sternly. “Go look that man in the eyes.”

“What if he isn’t my soulmate?” Kino asks. “What if he _is_?”

“Either way you have a date with Yeo Changgu tomorrow,” Wooseok taunts. Kino scowls. 

“Seriously,” Kino whispers. Wooseok bit his lip. For someone who liked to hide behind humor to avoid emotions, he sure did tear down his walls easily when it came to Kino. 

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. You want to meet your match. If he is, great. If he’s not, we’ll keep looking. It’s simple,” Wooseok explains. 

Kino took a deep breath. It was comforting to hear Wooseok make everything seem so casual and inconsequential. Kino worried about _everything_. Wooseok just dealt with things as they happened. Most of the time, it annoyed Kino that Wooseok didn’t take anything as seriously as he did, but there was nobody who could calm him down the same way. 

“Can you do the thing?” Kino begs. 

Wooseok let out a short, breathy laugh then nodded. He took a few steps back until he could peak around the bookcase at Hongseok. He examined him for a few seconds before returning to his spot in front of Kino. 

“Green sweater, glasses. Harmless, approachable. Nothing to worry about,” Wooseok says, describing how he’d viewed Hongseok seconds before. He had been doing this for Kino since they were in middle school. Kino referred to it as the real life version of looking up your friend’s house on Google Maps before you visit them. It made the situation more familiar, less scary. It helped. Of course, if Wooseok ever told anybody else about their little ritual, he’d deny it all.

“Okay. I’ll do it,” Kino agrees. He marches right out from behind the bookcase and up to the register where Hongseok was. Wooseok peers around the corner, hoping he was being subtle. Somehow, he was more nervous than Kino, though he was doing his best not to show it. 

“Hi,” Kino greets, putting the book down on the counter between him and Hongseok. His heart was pounding so loudly he couldn’t hear his own thoughts.

Hongseok looks up, and whenever he and Kino’s eyes meet, absolutely nothing happens. The disappointment crashes over Kino faster than he can get over his excitement in the first place. He was overstimulated, to say the least. 

“Kino! What are you doing on this side of town?” Hongseok asks cheerfully. One look at his smile makes Kino even more sad, if that was even possible. 

“I– um–”

Wooseok hears the hesitation in Kino’s voice and immediately comes out of hiding. What could he say? Coming to Kino’s rescue was like second nature, even if he did a sloppy job and often left Kino embarrassed afterward. 

“There you are!” Wooseok says, wrapping an arm around Kino’s shoulder. “Already ready to check out?”

“Wooseok! Wow!” Hongseok chirps. 

“Oh, hey, man!” Wooseok replies, taking the lead on a conversation Kino wasn’t prepared for. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

“I guess you could say that,” Hongseok says with a tiny smirk. Wooseok knows Hongseok wants Wooseok to give him an opening to brag about _owning_ the place, but he doesn’t. 

“Cool!” Wooseok coos. Kino could barely handle how fake he was being. Kino wondered if Hongseok could tell or if the ability to detect Wooseok’s lies had been built up by Kino over time. “It’s good to see you.”

“I’m happy to see you two, too,” Hongseok says with a bright smile. “I think everybody always kinda knew you’d end up together.”

Wooseok’s eyes widen, and he immediately pulls his arm away. Kino knew he was going to have to take over the conversation then. 

“We’re not—”

“Surprised either!” Kino says, cutting Wooseok off with a big grin. He wraps his arms around Wooseok’s waist to make his point. Wooseok practically chokes on his own spit. Kino didn’t know what came over him, but the idea of having to admit to Hongseok that Wooseok and Kino were just hanging out made Kino feel humiliated. It hadn’t even happened yet. “That’s funny you say that, though.”

“Is it?” Hongseok wonders, pushing his glasses up into his hair as he stepped back from the counter. It was a little funny to Kino how Hongseok had outgrown being a geeky, socially oblivious caterpillar and flourished into a rom-com lead of a butterfly. He was the kind of guy Kino had fantasized about being his link: sophisticated and intelligent with a cozy job Kino could daydream about. Some guy like that could still be Kino’s link, and Kino knew it, but it seemed less likely with each passing minute, especially with Hongseok ruled out. 

“Yeah, I kinda just thought that’s something only we knew,” Kino reasons. Wooseok bites the inside of his cheek to hold back a retort. Even if Kino was too ashamed to admit he’d come here looking for Hongseok, there wasn’t a logical reason as to why he had to bait Hongseok into telling him why Kino and _Wooseok_ would be a good couple. 

“Oh, c’mon,” Hongseok says, waving him off. “The entirety of high school felt like an inside joke that only the two of you were in on. You could’ve had a line of suitors awaiting you at your locker, and you’d pivot around to go meet Wooseok somewhere.”

Kino glances over at Wooseok, and he can see his face has completely flushed red. He was doing that typical Wooseok thing where he tries to hide his face in the neck of his hoodie, but everyone could see. In fact, it almost made it more obvious. 

“Some things are just meant to be,” Hongseok says decidedly, tapping his fingers on the hard, wooden table that held the cash register in front of him. Kino feels a million thoughts pounding on his skull, mostly about Wooseok. Had they really always been like this? “You two aren’t linked, are you?”

Kino shakes his head, glancing over at Wooseok. He’d never been what Kino had imagined his link would be, but Kino always thought Wooseok was cute, especially as they’d gotten older. Plus, he’d always been Kino’s favorite person to be around, even when they were kids. Maybe that’s what Kino needed in his link. He chased guys who were handsome and refined, but maybe cute and goofy was more his speed. 

“Fuck links,” Hongseok declares. Kino’s eyes widen. “You should be with who you want to be with.”

“Right,” Kino affirms, though he wants to fight Hongseok on the matter. His link _was_ who he wanted to be with. What wasn’t clear about your link being your one, perfect match? Why didn’t Hongseok get that?

“Anyway, you guys probably have better places to be,” Hongseok decides, though Kino suspects he just wants to get back to his book. “Ready to check out?”

Kino hands Hongseok the book, and, the entire time he’s being rung up, he has to resist the nerve to fight Hongseok over his statement against links. 

“Thank you guys for stopping by,” he sings as he hands Kino his shopping bag. 

Kino just nods, grabbing Wooseok by his arm and dragging him out of the shop. He doesn’t stop pulling until they’ve returned to the safety of Wooseok’s car and can climb in. 

“Do you want to explain what the hell that was?” Wooseok asks as Kino bangs his head against the dashboard. “Why did you lie to him?”

“Because I— I don’t know! I got embarrassed he wasn’t my link, and then, I didn’t want to admit we drove all the way there for _him_. What better way to cover that up than having a boyfriend?” Kino explains. 

“You are insane,” Wooseok announces. Kino just knots one of Wooseok’s hands with his own and squeezes gently. “He wasn’t wrong, you know.”

“Excuse me?” Kino says, clearly taken aback. Wooseok starts to panic, pulling his hand away. 

“ _Not_ about us belonging together,” Wooseok insists, voice reflecting how flustered he felt. “About high school. There was literally a line to talk to you, and you spent all your time with me. Maybe we wouldn’t have to do this right now if you gave _anybody_ a chance.”

“I don’t want _anybody_ ,” Kino corrects him harshly. “If _anybody_ was acceptable, don’t you think I’d have found somebody by now?”

“Oh, so before you weren’t interested in _anybody_ , but, if they look into your eyes and you can hear them zoning out about what they’re going to have for dinner that night, they’re the love of your life,” Wooseok quips back. 

“Yes,” Kino declares with complete sincerity. “That’s it.”

There’s a pause where Kino thinks about what Wooseok said and Wooseok thinks about whether he can keep doing this. Still, they both come to the same conclusion: Kino’s happiness is the most important thing. 

“Are you okay?” 

Kino looks up at him with a fake smile, then nods. 

“I didn’t want my link to be someone who names his bookstore after _The Catcher in the Rye_ , anyway!” Kino declares. Wooseok nods, not wanting to press Kino any further. Besides, he didn’t know anything about that book anyway. 

“Where to next?” Wooseok asks. 

“Coffee with Jo Jinho,” Kino admits sheepishly. Wooseok groans. There wasn’t anything wrong with Jinho, but if there was one person who avoided their classmates better than Kino did in high school, it had to have been him. 

“That’s your soulmate,” Wooseok teases. “I know it.”

“I hope so!” Kino sings. Wooseok shoved him as they both erupt into laughter. 

“You’re not supposed to agree!”

“Well, I do!” Kino laughs. “I want to meet my link, Wooseok!”

“Fuck my life,” Wooseok groans, taking Kino’s phone from him to see where they’re going. “Am I supposed to just watch you during your date?” 

“Yes,” Kino confirms. Wooseok just blinks at him like it’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard. 

“Okay,” Wooseok says after a few seconds, giving Kino back his phone and finally turning on the car. “Just coffee?”

“Just coffee,” Kino assures him. 

On the fifteen minute ride over to the café where Kino is due to meet Jinho, Kino attempts to distract himself by playing Wooseok new music he’d added to his library. Wooseok attempts to discuss the songs with him, but, still, it’s clear Kino’s mind is elsewhere from the get go. Instead, Wooseok just listens quietly. 

All Kino can think about is Jinho, picturing the two of them together and wondering if they’d be a good fit should Jinho be the one. In truth, Kino couldn’t really see it; Jinho was always so snarky and gloomy in class. Kino was the opposite, radiating optimism and positivity. He could already feel himself getting annoyed by Jinho’s attitude, but maybe someone realistic was necessary to keep a daydreamer like Kino grounded. 

As they walk up to the coffee shop, Kino can see a tiny smile forming across Wooseok’s lips. 

“What?” Kino whispers, tugging on Wooseok’s sleeve to make him stop and look at him. 

“Nothing,” Wooseok says back. 

“Wooseok,” Kino states again. Wooseok rolls his eyes, letting himself break out into a real, tangible smile. 

“Who picked this place, you or him?” Wooseok asks. 

“I did. What does that have to do—”

“There are two coffee shops in this part of town,” Wooseok points out. “You picked the one we never go to.”

“So?”

“So, Mr. Romantic wanted to keep his date away from our _actual_ hangout spots,” Wooseok assesses. 

“Shut up,” Kino scolds. “I just don’t like drinking the same coffee all the time.”

“Sure,” Wooseok teases. Kino knew Wooseok was right. He didn’t expect Jinho to be his soulmate, and, in the event he wasn’t, he didn’t want Jinho somehow starting to come to the coffee shop he, Hui and Wooseok always went to. Wooseok liked the added bonus that, if Jinho _was_ Kino’s link, their real coffee spot wouldn’t belong to Kino’s fantasies from then on. “What’s the plan for when this guy isn’t your soulmate?”

“When he _is_ my soulmate, I’ll signal to you, and you can leave,” Kino says. Wooseok just stares at him expectantly. Kino cracks after a few seconds. “If he isn’t, I’ll just have a single cup of coffee before telling him I have to get going. You wait until he leaves, then we meet at the car.”

Wooseok groans in annoyance. 

“We get to go watch baseball then, right?”

Kino nods. 

“I will buy you food and take you to a baseball game. I swear,” Kino promises, sweeping Wooseok’s hair out of his face absentmindedly. Wooseok just sighs. “What?”

“Nothing,” Wooseok whispers, pushing Kino’s hand away.

“Okay,” Kino resigns. “Ready?”

“Why are you asking me that?” Wooseok counters with a laugh, gesturing toward the door. “It’s your date.” 

Kino gives him a little shrug then enters the shop. It _was_ his date, after all. 

He’s relieved when Jinho hasn’t arrived yet. Despite his supposed confidence when it came to arguing with Wooseok, even Kino knows he isn’t quite ready to find out _another_ person isn’t his soulmate. 

“I’m gonna sit over here. You sit as far from us as possible,” Kino instructs. Wooseok just nods at him before getting in line to get his own coffee. 

As Kino sits at the table alone, waiting for Jinho, he finds himself looking over his shoulder at Wooseok, who was hiding in the back corner, sipping his drink as he scrolled mindlessly through his phone. Kino eventually switches his seat to the other side of his table so he can watch Wooseok without it being so obvious. Did that make him weird? Was he creepy? Kino couldn’t explain it. He just liked seeing Wooseok so calm and unbothered. Eventually, Kino decides to send him a text message. 

_hey_

Wooseok replies almost immediately. 

_hi_

Kino bit his lip softly, thumbs hovering over his screen as he tried to decide what to say. He hesitates for a second then decides to just type what he’s thinking. It was only Wooseok, after all. 

_you look cute over there_

He watches as Wooseok just stares down at his phone, like he has no idea what to say to Kino. After a minute or so of this, Kino assumes Wooseok isn’t going to reply to him. It took a lot of audacity, Kino thought, to ignore his text message when they were in the same room. Regardless, Kino sends him an 8-ball game request. He replies to _that_ in less than a minute. 

They go back and forth for a couple of rounds, and Kino is overly invested in their game. He was losing, as always, but he was mad about it. 

Eventually, someone sets their bag down across from Kino and greets him. 

“Hello!”

Maybe Kino was an idiot. Maybe his attention span was something to marvel. He’d completely forgotten about Jinho and finding his link. The only thing he was thinking about was beating Wooseok at 8-ball. He looks up without a single thought, and he meets Jinho’s eyes. He didn’t mentally prepare himself for even a second. He definitely wasn’t ready to find out if someone was his soulmate or not. 

The answer is a resounding no. Kino doesn’t hear anything. Jinho is another failed attempt at finding his link. Kino had expected himself to be a little more upset than he is. He supposed he never _really_ thought Jinho was his link. It was just too far-fetched. 

“Hey!” Kino sings back. He still wanted to be courteous. In a weird way, this was Kino’s first date. 

“I’m gonna grab us drinks before I sit down. What can I get you? My treat,” Jinho says with a soft smile. 

“A green tea latte,” Kino requests sheepishly. Truthfully, he felt a little awkward letting Jinho buy his drink knowing he no longer had any interest in him. Still, Jinho nods and quickly gets in line to buy their drinks. Kino refocuses back down at his phone in hopes of continuing his game with Wooseok. Instead, he finds a text. 

_not your link?_

Kino looked up and over at Wooseok, who was now watching him intently from across the way. Kino decides the only way he can handle this is by flipping Wooseok off. Wooseok gives him a little frown, then picks up his phone and types for a few seconds. 

_i’m sorry, kino._

The message makes Kino feel a little warm inside. Wooseok was a good friend, no matter how pessimistic he could get. He’d been teasing Kino all day about his quest to find his link, but Kino knew he wouldn’t have come along for all this if he didn’t want Kino to find his link and be happy. 

Kino completes his turn on 8-ball instead of replying to Wooseok’s text. Wooseok continues to pummel Kino, and by the time Jinho returns, Kino has officially suffered defeat. 

“Are you playing imessage games?” Jinho asks as he sets their drinks down in front of their respective chairs. His tone sounded almost judgmental, and it made Kino a little uneasy. 

“Oh, yeah. Just something I do with my best friend to kill time,” Kino admits. He avoids mentioning Wooseok by name out of fear Jinho would notice him in the corner and realize Kino had brought an entourage. 

“I can’t blame you. I have been known to play minesweeper at my desk,” Jinho proclaims as he finally sits down and takes a sip of his drink. “Some days are boring enough that even solitaire is fun.”

“Ha, yeah,” Kino agrees fakely. He couldn’t think of anything he related to less than the woes of curing your boredom with the games that come pre-installed on computers running Windows. “You work in tech, right?”

“Sorta. I kinda just solve all the technological problems for an accounting firm,” Jinho explains. “Their systems have all been in place longer than I’ve been alive, so I just troubleshoot.” 

“That must be boring. I would be crawling out of my skin,” Kino attempts to sympathize. Jinho just shrugs.

“It’s uneventful, but it’s also stable and consistent,” Jinho rationalizes. “That’s what we really need, right?”

_No._ Kino couldn’t imagine anything more suffocating than consistency. He liked things like reliability and stability in theory, but he couldn’t imagine that being someone’s _only_ goal. Just the thought of it made his skin crawl. 

“Yeah,” he adds weakly. He certainly wasn’t going to argue with Jinho. “You must have a bunch of funny stories about old people with computers. Like, I remember my grandmother used to always type ‘thank you’ after her google searches.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jinho admits. His eyes turned up with laughter. “There’s a lady in the office who uses a magnifying glass to read her emails instead of, i don’t know, making the text bigger.”

“Oh my god,” Kino mumbles. For a second, Kino starts thinking about people like Hui or Shinwon who went out with people before their link. Maybe he could be like that. Maybe he could go out with Jinho again. Maybe he could have a _boyfriend_. The idea sends Kino on a rollercoaster daydream of dates and hand holding and talking to each other constantly. He likes the idea. He _loves_ the idea. He’s wrapped up in how desperately he wants to be like that when he realizes he hasn’t been paying attention to anything Jinho has been saying. 

Kino tries to tune back into the conversation, but he just doesn’t care to. Jinho has turned the topic into an opportunity to complain about work. Kino should’ve seen it coming. Jinho had always been so negative; why would that be different now? 

Kino slowly removes his phone from his pocket, resting it on his thigh and trying his best not to look down too much as he navigates to his messages and chooses Wooseok’s name. He nodded along to Jinho’s story like it was the most interesting thing he had ever heard. 

_call me_

He sends the message, then adds a couple of exclamatory _really?_ remarks aloud to make it seem like he was still listening. 

“Yeah, I swear she needs me to teach her how to forward an email every other week,” Jinho practically groans. Kino offers him a scoff of sympathy. He did feel bad. Jinho seemed normal, nice even. He just wasn’t Kino’s link, and this conversation’s expiration was approaching rapidly. 

Kino glances down, wondering why the call hadn’t come in yet. To his dismay, Wooseok had replied to his message. 

_What? why?_

He holds back a groan. How could Wooseok be so oblivious to the situation? Did this truly look like a good time from over there? Obviously Jinho wasn’t his link. Kino just wanted to leave. He wishes he could tell all that to Wooseok, but he can’t. It would be too much to type, too obvious to Jinho he didn’t care about their conversation at all. Kino settles for one word. 

_escape_

A few seconds later, Kino’s phone rings, much to his relief. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s my little sister. She wouldn’t call me if it wasn’t important,” Kino lies. Jinho nods. 

“Go ahead,” he says, furrowing his eyebrows in worry. Kino felt guilty, but he knew he had to push along. 

“Hello?” he says. There’s no sound on the other end of the line. He glances over to Wooseok at his table in the back corner. His phone was face down in front of him. Kino supposed that made sense. If Jinho spotted him, things would become glaringly obvious. All this meant was that Kino was going to have to perform all alone. “Is everything okay?”

He paused, frantically looking between Jinho and his watch and trying to put on his best concerned face. 

“Do I need to come?” he asks. Again, he pauses as though somebody is answering on the other line. “I just– I’m kind of in the middle of something and–”

“Go,” Jinho mouths softly. 

“Are you sure?” Kino whispers, meeting Jinho’s eyes. Jinho nods. It was what Kino had expected to happen, of course. He refocuses on his imaginary phone call. “I’m on my way. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Pause. 

“Okay.”

Pause. 

“Okay.”

Pause. 

“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

Kino hangs up, and Jinho is looking at him with all of the concern in the world. 

“I’m so sorry about this,” Kino says. Jinho shakes his head. 

“Trust me, coffee isn’t that important. Is everything okay?” Jinho asks as Kino gathers his things in preparation of dashing out of the shop. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Kino insists. “My sister just got herself into some trouble. She’ll be fine.”

“Good to hear,” Jinho replies. “Well, it was really good to see you anyway–”

“Yeah! I’m glad we could catch up. See you later,” Kino says quickly, before Jinho can bring up potentially rescheduling or hanging out another time. He couldn’t say with certainty that Jinho would even want to do those things, but Kino certainly didn’t plan on giving him the opportunity. 

He races to Wooseok’s car in a parking lot around the corner, and he’s unbelievably thankful Wooseok was too stupid to lock his car, because that means he can climb in and lay low in case Jinho walked by. 

“That was horrible,” Kino practically screeches in laughter whenever Wooseok _finally_ returns to the car with him. Truthfully, he was riding some sort of high; he hadn’t really been expecting him and Jinho to be a match anyway, and he’d never had the chance to just bail on a date like that before. He saw it all the time in the movies. 

“Yeah, it was,” Wooseok agrees, laying his head on his steering wheel. “Are you insane?”

“How many times are you going to ask me that today?” Kino taunts back. “I’m starting to think I’ve really missed out on this whole dating thing.”

“I’m sorry?” Wooseok says quizzically. He was completely dumbfounded by Kino today. 

“That was fun. He was boring and not my type at all, but I’ve never really been on a real date before,” Kino explains. “I’ve never experienced it, good or bad.”

“That was your choice,” Wooseok reminds him. 

“I know,” Kino assures him. “Not everybody makes all the right choices all the time.”

Wooseok nods. He’d certainly made a lot of his own wrong choices. In fact, in comparison to Kino, who was naive more than anything else, Wooseok was an everyday fuckup. 

“Does that mean there’s going to be a second date?” Wooseok asks playfully. Kino’s eyes widen. 

“Absolutely not,” he affirms. He opens up his messaging app and hovers over his conversation with Jinho. “Should I block him? I’ve never gotten to ghost someone before either.”

“I hope that’s a joke,” Wooseok says with a sigh. He knew it had to be. Kino empathized with and cared about other people too much to do something like that. He didn’t breathe without thinking about how it would affect the people around him. 

“Mostly,” Kino confirms. “I’d feel horrible.”

“Good.”

Kino rolls his eyes, closing out of his phone and slumping back into the passenger seat. 

“Is it _finally_ baseball time?” Wooseok asks, voice suddenly caked in excitement. Kino can’t help but let a little grin dance across his lips at the sound of Wooseok’s pure joy. 

“Yes,” he confirms. Kino watches Wooseok’s doe eyes light up as he starts the car, and Kino finds himself thinking tonight will have been worth it even if Yuto _isn’t_ his soulmate. Seeing Wooseok this happy was worth it. 

“We have to go to my apartment first,” Wooseok enthuses. “I need to get my Twins hat.”

Kino rolls his eyes dramatically to tease Wooseok, but, in truth, he found Wooseok’s fanaticism very cute. 

Upon arrival at Wooseok's apartment complex, Wooseok parks the car but doesn’t even remove his keys from the ignition. He simply climbs out, calling to Kino that he’ll be five minutes. 

When three minutes turns to five and five turns to ten, Kino starts to get bored. Naturally, the first thing he does is start to dig through the stuff in Wooseok’s glove box. 

The first things he finds are a parking citation that Wooseok needed to pay _soon_ and a copy of Wooseok’s registration and insurance. He starts to put it all away, realizing a glove box wasn’t exactly a prime place to snoop through, when he notices a stack of tickets in the very bottom of the compartment. Kino pulls them out and begins to flip through them. Each ticket belonged to an event: concerts, movies, even game booth tickets from the boardwalk. They’re all dated, though some are marked in pen and some in sharpie and some in pencil. The dates went back years. Some of the dates Kino couldn’t remember or recognize, but most of them he just _knows_ are things he and Wooseok did together, especially the movies and concerts. 

He’s still staring at all the mementos when Wooseok climbs back into his car, now wearing his baseball team gear. 

“What are all these?” Kino asks, waving the stack in front of Wooseok’s face. Wooseok’s cheeks immediately flush red. He snatches the papers from Kino, then opens his glove box and shoves them back inside. 

“You’re really nosy,” Wooseok sneers. 

“You took a long time,” Kino argues, as flimsy a defense as it was. 

“It’s not 1850. You have a cellphone,” Wooseok snaps. 

“Yeah, whatever. What _is_ all that, Wooseok?” Kino repeats. He wasn’t giving this up. 

“They’re keepsakes,” Wooseok practically barks. He throws an extra team hat he’d grabbed from his apartment toward Kino before turning on his car. “What do they look like?”

“Keepsakes of what?” 

“Of happy times in my life,” Wooseok explains hastily. “Whenever I have a good day, I pick something to keep to remind me of that day. I put the date on it, and I keep it in my glove box, so when I’m sad, I can look at those and think of good times.” 

“A lot of those were times we hung out,” Kino points out. 

“A lot of the times we hang out, I’m happy,” Wooseok quips. “Have you ever heard of a scrapbook? This sort of thing isn’t weird, you know.”

“I know!” Kino promises. “I just didn’t take you for the type.”

“Well, now you know,” Wooseok mumbles bitterly.

For a while, they ride in silence, just listening to music. Kino doesn’t mind. He likes having the time to think, even if he is just alternating between thinking about all those tickets in Wooseok’s glove box and the very real possibility that Yuto is his soulmate. For the most part, he lands on Wooseok’s tickets. He wished he had done something like that and eventually starts to brainstorm about what nights he would’ve kept a keepsake from. One night in particular comes to mind more than anything else. 

“Hey, Wooseok,” Kino says, turning down the knob on the radio. Wooseok glances over at him quickly in acknowledgment, then fixes his eyes back on the road. “Who was your first kiss?”

Wooseok just scoffs in response. 

“You were,” he replies. He barely moves, just stares straight ahead and grips the steering wheel a little tighter. 

“That was your first kiss?” Kino questions in disbelief. At their very first high school party, Kino had been dared by a kid in the grade above them to kiss someone in the room. Kino had panicked. He hardly knew anyone there. He hardly knew anything about kissing. But he couldn’t refuse. He’d look like a loser in front of everyone. It would be a stain on his entire high school career. So, he kissed the person he was most comfortable with, who he knew would never tell anyone if the kiss was bad. 

“It was,” Wooseok laughs. “Sorry I wasn’t a heartthrob in middle school. I was very dedicated to Bakugan at the time.”

“I– I didn’t mean it like that,” Kino stammers. “It was my first kiss, too.”

“So, what? You’re upset about that?” 

“No,” Kino insists. “I just didn’t know I ruined your first kiss. I wouldn’t have done that if I knew.”

“You didn’t ruin my first kiss,” Wooseok reassures him. “Does that mean you think I ruined yours?” 

“ _No_ ,” Kino contends. He couldn’t fathom ever thinking that. He’d always been pretty satisfied with his first kiss; it might’ve been at a party with a boy he wasn’t even dating, but Wooseok would always be a big part of his life. The hopeless romantic in him had always liked that. Besides, he had never admitted it to anyone, but he had heard his heart pounding so loudly it felt like it was inside his skull for the rest of the night. 

“Why would you have ruined mine, then?” Wooseok counters. Kino sighed.

“I had a choice. You didn’t,” he explains. 

Wooseok is quiet for a long time. Kino doesn’t think he’s going to reply at all. For the first time, the silence between them isn’t comforting or casual. It’s defeating. 

Finally, Wooseok makes a statement, eyes still fixated on the road: “I would’ve chosen you anyway.” 

Kino smiles to himself, but he doesn’t say anything else. He just lets the both of them think for the rest of the ride. He spends the ride thinking about all the time he’d spent with Wooseok over the years, and he sort of hopes Wooseok does the same. 

When they arrive at the stadium, Kino can tell immediately Wooseok is having more fun than he has had in a long time. He excitedly rambled on and on to Kino about what players he liked and whether teams were good. In truth, Kino couldn’t care less; anything anybody said to him about sports went in one ear and out the other. Still, though, he would never give Wooseok any indication of that. Wooseok was usually so calm and passive. Any time he was actually passionate about something, Kino wanted him to talk for hours. 

“And if the Twins win tonight they’ll have the best record in the _league_ ,” Wooseok emphasizes as they finally took their seats. Kino just nods along, already mentally preparing for what he would say to Yuto later. He _knew_ Yuto had to be the one. He was the most likely of any of their candidates to begin with. 

“Do you think they’ll win this year?” Kino wonders. Admittedly, he couldn’t even tell you what these teams were trying to win. 

“I wish,” Wooseok says with a loud sigh. “The batting is just so inconsistent. They’re red hot one minute, and, next thing i know, the entire team is slumping.”

“That must be frustrating,” Kino reacts for authenticity. Should he have gone home to change before coming out here? This was going to be the first time his soulmate saw him since high school, and he was wearing _shorts_. 

“It is!” Wooseok groans. “We should watch more games together.”

Kino nods, and, honestly, he really did mean it. Baseball was tranquil enough that he could read or draw while Wooseok watched. He very much liked the idea of the two of them curling up on his couch, ordering takeout and hanging out while Wooseok watched his baseball games. 

Soon, the first batter comes to the plate. Kino watches intently, but, admittedly, he didn’t understand much. 

“I don’t get it,” he announces. 

“What’s not to get?” Wooseok replies, shoving a nacho into his mouth. “Bat man try to hit ball.”

“Why can’t he just hit it?” Kino asks, gesturing to the batter, who was behind in the count already. “Their entire career is to swing the bat at the right time!”

“It’s not that easy,” Wooseok insists. “Every pitcher throws the ball a little differently. They throw at different speeds, and the pitches reach the plate in different spots. It’s _hard_.”

“I could do it,” Kino declares. 

“No, you couldn’t.”

“Yes, I could! I should’ve been a baseball player,” Kino decides. He steals a nacho from Wooseok, and focuses on the game, sighing dramatically when the batter strikes out. “They’re gonna lose!”

“We want them to lose,” Wooseok reminds him. “Our team bats second.” 

“Oh,” Kino mumbles. Wooseok just smiles at him, clearly amused by Kino’s attempt to enjoy sports. 

By the end of the second inning, Kino has started to find his footing. He’s cheering at the right times (mainly by cheering whenever Wooseok cheers), and he’s asking questions that seem to imply he actually understands the game on some level. 

“So, wait,” Kino says, holding but a hand as though he’s calling for Wooseok to stop. “They don’t have to touch the plate when they have the ball for the runner to be out?”

“Not if they catch it before it hits the ground,” Wooseok clarifies, “or if they tag the runner directly.”

“Got it,” Kino murmurs. A few seconds later, the inning comes to a close with a brutal double play. Kino reacts accordingly, crossing his arms and complaining about the shoddy base running. 

“You seem so invested,” Wooseok notes. 

“I am!” he replies with a tiny smile. “It’s kinda fun.”

“You just wanna be knowledgeable for _Yuto_ ,” Wooseok teases. Kino shakes his head. 

“It’s because I’m here with you,” he states firmly. Kino can see Wooseok’s heart melt a little by watching the way his eyes turn downward as he started to regret making fun of Kino. He can even see the exact moment Wooseok tells himself to get it together because his face snaps back to normal and he shoves Kino for good measure. 

“Please do not get all mushy when I’m trying to bro down,” Wooseok orders with a laugh. “There are no feelings in sports except anger when your team underperforms and boastfulness when your team wins a ring, got it?” 

“Got it,” Kino confirms with a tiny smile. He could tell Wooseok liked what he’d said; he was just embarrassed, as usual. 

Two more innings later, Kino is so invested in the game, he’s mostly forgotten about Yuto. The only thing he cared about was that the Twins had scored two runs last inning, bringing the game to a tie after the opposing team managed a homerun in the third. 

“Ugh, I’m gonna go get some water while these guys bat. I feel like I’m bad luck,” Kino muses. 

“How did you decide that?” Wooseok queries, but Kino is already crawling out of his seat. He was a real sports fan in that moment, convinced of irrational superstitions and a little bit nauseous worrying about how this game would end. 

“I just feel like every time I’m watching they score runs.”

“You’ve only watched four innings!” Wooseok points out. 

“I’ll be back!” Kino says, completely ignoring Wooseok’s claim. 

Kino wanders out into the concourse, and he becomes immediately fascinated by how much stuff there is to do and buy and eat. There were stands and carts and booths everywhere. All he wanted was a bottle of water, but he became distracted looking at a vendor who was selling deep fried chewing gum. 

He stood at the glass, examining the breading that had been placed around the gum. He couldn’t believe there were people who would eat this. He could barely breathe near it. 

“Is it still chewy?” 

“Yes,” the vendor answers. Kino shivers at the thought, but he still buys a piece. He felt an obligation to, after having bothered the poor man being forced to sell such a disgusting concoction. 

As Kino is putting his change back into his wallet, something occurs to him. 

“Um, weird question, but do you know where the press box is? I have a friend who is covering the game, and he wanted me to bring him dinner,” Kino asks the vendor. The lie burned his throat. He felt silly, completely making up a story for someone who could probably care less. 

“Second level. There are signs,” the vendor advises, expressly indifferent to Kino and his lie. Kino nods, then begins working toward the incline that led to the second level of seating. 

At first, he thinks he should tell Wooseok, but he can’t stop himself. Besides, wouldn’t it be weird, Wooseok standing there as Yuto and Kino realized they were meant to be together?

Kino hurries up to the second level, all while worrying about how exactly he was going to lie his way into an area that required credentials. He wasn’t even a good liar to begin with! He was the type of person who told their mom the truth whenever they got caught drinking or trying to sneak out. He was the type of person who never cheated on a math test in his life. Still, he keeps walking, following the signage. 

Whenever he finds the entrance to the press area, though, he thinks the universe is thanking him for always being so honest. He was now the type of person who was looking at his potential soulmate as he leaned up against the wall, having a conversation with what Kino could only assume is another reporter. It had to be fate. It just had to be. What were the odds Yuto would leave the press box at the exact time Kino came looking for him? There was only one explanation: they were meant to be together. 

Kino waits for Yuto to finish his conversation, then watches as he checks the messages on his phone. He was cute, that was for sure. For a while, Kino just stands there, trying to think of what to say. It was hard to explain to somebody who you hadn’t seen in years that you believed they’re your soulmate because the _mistress of the moon_ told you so. 

So, Kino decides to take the easy way out: obliviousness. 

He walks right up to Yuto and intentionally bumps into him, causing his phone to go falling to the ground. 

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry,” Kino yelps. Yuto immediately crouches down to the floor to get his phone, not even bothering to look at Kino. 

“No problem,” he replies dryly. 

“Wait, Yuto? Oh my god!” Kino says, trying his best to lace his words with authenticity. Yuto doesn’t even look up. He was so focused on examining his phone for damage. “I haven’t seen you since high school!”

Just when Yuto looks up, Kino dashes his eyes down to his feet. He wasn’t ready to find out. Not yet. 

“Oh, Kino, Hi,” Yuto practically mumbles. “It’s nice to see you. I didn’t know you liked baseball.”

“I _love_ it!” 

Another minute, another lie. He glances quickly up at Yuto, and he is deeply thankful Yuto’s refocused on his phone. He appeared to be replying to emails. Weird, but Kino supposed he was technically on the job. 

“That’s cool,” Yuto replies. “Are you here with someone?”

“Oh, um…”

He paused. He couldn’t bring up Wooseok. Not today. Kino just _knew_ Yuto would assume they were weird or codependent. 

“My sister, yeah,” Kino announces. 

“Oh, yeah. I remember how close you were,” Yuto recalls, like it’s nothing at all that he can remember those sorts of facts about someone he hasn’t spoken to in years. At that moment, Kino _really_ believes Yuto is his soulmate. He believes it so much he starts wondering if he needs to backread all of Yuto’s articles and if he’s expected to know about sports. He can’t wait to introduce Yuto to his sister, in fact. 

In that moment of complete and total belief, it seems not only logical but _romantic_ to reach out and touch Yuto’s cheek, prompting him to look up so their eyes finally meet. 

Of course, when they do, he hears nothing except for Yuto awkwardly shifting away as he failed to find anything logical or romantic about some weirdo he knew in high school putting his hands on his face. 

“Uh,” Yuto vocalizes, clearing his throat in the process as his way of showing his discomfort. 

“Sorry,” Kino whispers. “I thought you had something on your face.”

“Oh,” Yuto says back. 

“Yeah, I gotta go,” he announces. “Um, here. Take this.” 

Kino shoves the fried gum into Yuto’s hands, then turns around and rushes back to the first level as fast as his feet can take him. He doesn’t know what to do besides duck into the closest bathroom and lock himself in a stall. 

On a typical day, the neurotic, perfectionist that was Kang Kino would never find himself sitting on the disgusting petri dish that is a public restroom floor, but, in that moment, Kino feels like his heart has been broken. He knew that he and Yuto barely knew each other. He knew that Madam Luna could very well be a fraud. But he wanted to believe in her. He wanted to believe that he could find his link, that he could be happy. Instead, he was trying not to cry in a restroom at a baseball game. Maybe his tendency to believe in people was Kino’s worst quality. 

After a while, someone angrily knocks on the stall door, so Kino is forced to collect himself and exit, no matter how shameful that is. He spends another five minutes at the mirror, adamant that Wooseok not be able to tell how upset he was. By the time he actually returns to his seat, it’s the bottom of the sixth inning. 

“What took you so long?” Wooseok questions, voice tinted with worry and eyebrows knitted together. Kino bit his lip softly, wishing there was a nice way of explaining what happened. 

“I went and saw Yuto,” Kino says after a while. 

“And…?”

“And he’s not my link,” Kino confirms. Wooseok frowns, patting Kino’s shoulder gently. “It’s okay, really. I mean, I have my date with Changgu tomorrow, right?”

“My money’s still on that one,” Wooseok beams. He opens his mouth like he’s going to say something else, but then everyone around them starts to jump up and cheer. In that moment, all Kino can do is watch as his conversation with Wooseok flies away along with the ball a Twins player hit so far it sailed over the stadium’s seating completely. 

The excitement of the homerun does, however, allow Kino to comfortably return to the game. He still liked watching with Wooseok, even without the Yuto element. In fact, he liked it more, since he could tell Wooseok was happier once he realized Kino’s interest wasn’t just about impressing the sports journalist. 

Kino and Wooseok spend the last three innings cheering and dancing and booing and yelling, and Kino has so much fun he starts to contemplate when he and Wooseok can go to a game together again. 

As they walk back to Wooseok’s car, Kino starts to think maybe tonight wasn’t a waste. He felt like such a loser for breaking down over something like this. He barely knew Yuto. For all Kino knew, he’d actually _enjoyed_ the hellish insult that was fried bubble gum. He couldn’t be linked with someone like that. 

“That was fun,” Kino says, looping his arm with Wooseok as they walked through the parking lot. “It’s really easy to understand, too. I tried to watch soccer with Hui and Shinwon, but I didn’t get it. They just ran back and forth.”

“That’s… We’ll figure out soccer another day,” Wooseok promises with a laugh. Kino just nods. 

When they finally load up into the car, Kino takes a minute and sighs dramatically. 

“Shall we recap our day?” he asks. 

“I mean, we were both there–”

“Yuto, Jinho and Hongseok are all confirmed to not be my link. We have three guys that don’t live in the area anymore,” Kino recounts. Wooseok nods. “Add you and me, that’s eight. That means we only have four options left to test tomorrow.”

“Including unattainable Yanan and unlikely Changgu,” Wooseok adds. Kino knew he came from a place of pessimism, but Kino was focusing only on good thoughts. He’d had a nice night, even if Yuto wasn’t his link. He was still looking forward to tomorrow. 

“Right,” Kino confirms. “Plus the lawyer and the dentist.”

“What are you going to do if those are all wrong, too?” Wooseok queries. He finally turned on his car, clearly ready to just go home. 

“Then we'll go on a road trip to meet the other three next weekend,” Kino hypothesizes. 

“Wow,” Wooseok murmurs as he pulls out of the parking spot. Kino thought he seemed uncharacteristically focused on driving. 

“What?” Kino says, gently touching Wooseok’s arm. Wooseok swatted his hand away. 

“Nothing,” Wooseok says, just as lowly as before. “I just– Are you sure we should be doing all this?”

Kino thinks for a minute about how he’d felt when Yuto wasn’t his link, and the only answer that seems logical is a resounding _no_. But then, he remembers that split second where he’d been so certain. The way his heart raced and excitement had filled his entire being felt like some sort of adrenaline rush. He needed to feel it again. He needed to find his link so he could feel like that all the time. 

“Yes,” he confirms. 

Wooseok just shrugs, refocusing on the road. Kino wished Wooseok could understand. In his entire life, Wooseok was the one person who was always there, always supporting him. Even now, when Wooseok clearly just wanted this all to stop, he’d driven Kino here, and he’d kept Kino company all day, no matter what antics he wanted to get up to. Kino knew he’d always have Wooseok. He just wished his search wasn’t a burden. If Wooseok could understand, maybe it wouldn’t be. 

“Thanks for today,” he says before even opening his door. “I know you think all this is stupid, but–”

“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Wooseok insists. “I want you to find what you’re looking for.”

“Okay,” Kino whispers. “I can tell it all seems silly, though.”

“Not to me,” Wooseok assures him. He wouldn’t budge, not for a minute. 

Kino supposed this is how it had always been; he and Wooseok had always gotten along, but that didn’t mean they had a lot in common. Kino was bright and bubbly. Wooseok was drowsy and relaxed. Kino was headstrong and opinionated. Wooseok was laidback and pliable. Kino’s mom had once told Kino that if he was like the sun, Wooseok was the moon. They were a pair with nothing in common, and, in this case, the calm moon wasn’t going to say a single, negative word to the harsh sun. He just wouldn’t. 

“Okay,” Kino repeats. If Wooseok didn’t want to admit something was wrong, Kino wasn’t going to push it. That’s the least he could do. “See you tomorrow?”

“As soon as I wake up,” Wooseok states. 

“Before noon, _please_ ,” Kino urges with a laugh. Wooseok holds out his pinky, and Kino tightly wraps his own around it in a promise.

Before Kino leaves, though, a thought crosses his mind. He digs around in his jacket pocket and pulls out one of the tickets to the game. 

“For your glove box,” Kino says softly, handing the ticket to Wooseok. Wooseok laughs under his breath but takes the ticket from Kino. 

After that, Kino crawls out of the car and heads up to his apartment. He runs through his nighttime routine, but before he can actually go to bed, he has one final obligation. He grabs the other ticket from the game from his pocket and a pen, circled the date printed on the ticket, then put the ticket in the drawer of his desk. 

When Kino awakes, it’s only nine, and he knows he has a couple of hours to kill before Wooseok will actually show up. Even on nights like last night, where he’d surely gone to bed at a decent time, Wooseok slept for hours and hours. When they were in middle school, Kino had spent many early mornings after sleepovers pretending he was still asleep. By high school, he’d taken to just going out into Wooseok’s house and either gossiping with his sister or eating breakfast with his mom. Kino was always surprised when Wooseok didn’t care what Kino got up to in the mornings. If Wooseok did the same thing with Kino’s family, Kino would freak. 

At half-past eleven, Kino is sitting at his kitchen table, four chapters into a book that had been collecting dust on his shelf for the past month, when he hears the door to his apartment open. 

“I’m here,” Wooseok announces proudly as he enters the kitchen, “and it’s before noon!”

“Good job!” Kino teases with a big smile. “Now you need to master getting up before ten.”

“Let’s not get crazy,” Wooseok jokes back, pulling out the chair across from Kino. “Do you have a game plan for seeing Yanan yet?” 

“No,” Kino admits. He was starting to struggle with defeat. This really all might’ve been for nothing. “I messaged him, and he didn’t even open my DM.” 

“Well, I had an idea,” Wooseok explains. Kino’s eyes light up. He loved the idea Wooseok was actually putting his brain into this. “I was looking at his Instagram this morning and he posted a video of him prepping for a party he’s running this afternoon.”

“And?”

“And? And let’s go to the party,” Wooseok suggests. Kino practically snorts. 

“You want to just party crash? We don’t even know what the party’s for–”

“So? We get in, then you look into Yanan’s eyes. We either leave because he’s not your link or…,” Wooseok trails off as he realizes he doesn’t really know what happens if they manage to find Kino’s match, especially not if he’s someone like Yanan. “Anyway, the process will take, like, ten minutes.”

“Okay, but where are we even going?” Kino asks. 

“He geotagged the venue,” Wooseok informs Kino, opening back up Yanan’s story so they can look at it together. Sure enough, he had posted a video of him popping a balloon, then tagged himself at a multi-purpose venue twenty minutes away and captioned the photo _Party Day_. It seemed pretty straight forward. 

“Is this like, super creepy?” Kino wonders, suddenly a bit guilty. They’d done a lot of unconventional stuff yesterday. 

“Yes,” Wooseok admits, “but not any creepier than going to a stadium to look for Yuto.” 

“Right,” Kino acknowledges with a frown. 

“We should go,” Wooseok decides. 

They get into Wooseok’s car and head over to the venue, engaging in their usual gabs about nothing in particular. 

“You know,” Kino says suddenly. “Once I find my link, my next mission is going to be finding yours.”

Wooseok rolled his eyes. Kino didn’t get why. Wasn’t Wooseok lonely? All Kino wanted was to fall in love, and it seemed like the furthest thing from Wooseok’s mind. 

“Why do you care about finding my link?” Wooseok asks. Kino frowns. 

“Because I want you to be happy,” Kino replies simply. It really was that obvious to Kino. Wooseok was his best friend, and Kino had always seen finding your link as an essential part of life. To him, helping his best friend find his link made perfect sense. 

“I don’t need to find my link to be happy,” Wooseok declares, “and neither do you.”

“You shouldn’t force yourself to be lonely–”

“I’m not lonely!” Wooseok snaps. Kino was beginning to get fed up with how touchy he’d been the past two days. Wooseok was always so calm, patient. The way so many things Kino said elicited an angry response from Wooseok was foreign, and Kino didn’t like it at all. 

“You’re gonna be lonely whenever me and Hui both have our links and you’re still refusing to look for yours,” Kino taunts playfully in what he thought was an attempt to diffuse the situation. Wooseok just ignores him completely. Like every other time Wooseok got snippy, Kino lets it go. It was never worth the fight. Wooseok always simmered down after a few minutes of silence. Fighting back just made both of them needlessly upset. 

“Oh, god. We’re here,” Kino groans when they finally pull up at the venue. He was more nervous about crashing a party than checking if he was linked with Yanan. He’d probably be nervous to see Yanan even if he didn’t think they might possibly be soulmates. 

Wooseok pulls into a lot nearby and parks the car. Even after Wooseok removes his keys from the ignition, Kino is still just sitting in the passenger seat, perfectly still. 

“Are you ready?” Wooseok asks. The question is mostly rhetorical; Wooseok already has a hand on the door handle. 

“What if this is, like, a funeral?” Kino worries. Wooseok just narrows his eyes in confusion. 

“There were balloons,” Wooseok reminds him. “Listen, the sooner we have an answer, the sooner we can leave.” 

Kino nods, then follows Wooseok’s lead as they exit the car and make their way toward the venue. To actually enter the building, there’s a large, stone staircase with ornate carvings in the railings, and all the brick making up the building is covered in an elegant moss. The whole place gives Wooseok, who was ungraceful and lanky at best, a bad feeling. It felt like he could knock over a punch bowl and suddenly owe someone ten thousand dollars. 

“This is the first one I’ve thought might actually be your link,” Wooseok says with a laugh as he tugs on the giant, wooden doors with golden accents. “You’re materialistic... He's materialistic… It’s just like Hui and Shinwon!” 

“No messing around. I’m nervous,” Kino rebukes.

As they enter further into the venue, Kino starts to see decorations. Most things don’t give him  
any clues; the halls are just covered in standard balloons, drapery and streamers. Soon, though, Kino starts to notice bell and ring motifs, including a balloon that’s just two rings overlayed over one another. 

“Fuck, are we walking into a wedding? We’re so underdressed,” Kino notices, suddenly clinging to Wooseok’s side as though he could hide Kino from everybody else. 

“I expected a birthday party,” Wooseok admits in a grumble. 

Even in high school, Yanan had thrown the best parties. Whether his parents weren’t around much or simply didn’t care, Kino couldn’t tell you, but it seemed like at least once every couple of months Yanan threw the party of the century, decking his house out in themed decorations and inviting anyone who showed up inside. An abundance of Kino’s teenage memories took place inside Yanan’s house. It only made sense Yanan would be an event planner now, still creating memories for other people. 

“It’s fine. We’ll just go in, find Yanan and get out,” Kino decides, so they continue on. 

Kino feels a bit of relief when he starts to see other guests. They were dressed nice, but certainly not for a wedding. 

“Maybe it’s a vow renewal situation,” Wooseok suggests, “You know, like old people do.”

“A vow renewal?” Kino repeats back, furrowing his eyebrows. 

“Yeah, on my parents’ twentieth anniversary they renewed their vows. They had a little party, too, but it was mainly just us and a handful of their friends,” Wooseok explains. “Yours didn’t do anything like that?”

Kino shook his head reluctantly. He didn’t want to admit it, but his parents weren’t exactly the lovey-dovey type anymore. When he was a kid, he could remember thinking they were _so_ in love. They were the reason he wanted to meet his soulmate so bad in the first place! He wanted to be like them, find a love like theirs. Now, whenever he would visit, they seemed so distant from each other. It almost made Kino wonder about soulmates. Shouldn’t you be in love with your link forever? 

“Well, this is probably the rich person version of that,” Wooseok decides. 

They finally reach the main party area, which is a backyard Yanan has converted to include many tables, some of which are intended for use and some of which are covered in spangles and refreshments. All the tables are surrounded by lots of flowers and shrubbery, creating a garden feel. Kino thinks it’s lovely and the kind of party he’d kill to have. He almost forgets he wasn’t invited and he knows nobody there for a moment. 

“Look, there he is,” Woooseok says, pulling on Kino’s sleeve and gesturing to a tall, blonde figure aggressively ordering around a waiter. 

“God, he's gorgeous,” Kino mumbles, examining Yanan carefully. Wooseok thought he mirrored Kino in how he looked like someone’s Ken doll, stylish and sculpted. “I don’t know if someone who looks like that can be my link.”

“Did I just hear _Kang Kino_ suggest someone is out of his league?” Wooseok laughs. Kino had always had a lot of confidence: in his intelligence, in his abilities and in his looks. It felt like being in the twilight zone to hear such a thing. 

“No,” Kino barks, “but he’s still scary.”

Kino is ready to clarify that he does _not_ think Yanan is above him when Yanan turns, his eyes looking right into Kino’s. Kino feels like he’s going to explode. He doesn’t hear a thing, yet again. Yanan isn’t his soulmate, but he’s certainly seen Kino. Kino had to come up with an excuse for being at this party quickly. 

“Kino?” Yanan says, once he processes who he’s looking at. Kino swallows hard. He wants to grab Wooseok’s wrist and make a break for it, but he figures Yanan would inevitably catch them before they could escape. “And Wooseok, too! Wow!”

“Yanan! Hi!” Kino greets with a forced smile as Yanan approaches them. Wooseok offers a tiny wave. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s _my_ party,” Yanan informs him, furrowing his eyebrows. “Well, I mean, it’s my sister’s engagement party, but I planned it. What are _you_ doing here?”

Kino hadn’t been prepared to hear that. He thought he was crashing the party of a client, one who Yanan barely knew, meaning his lies would be undetectable. A party for Yanan’s sister meant Yanan probably knew most of the people who were invited. So, he panics, and, when Kino panics, he does stupid things. This time is no exception.

“That’s so weird!” he exclaims. “Wooseok is actually the groom’s cousin.”

Wooseok elbows him in the ribs. 

“That is soooo crazy,” Kino continues to enthuse, not letting Wooseok’s aversion deter him from his acting performance. Wooseok felt like he’d been hearing Kino lie more than he’d ever wanted to the past couple of days. 

“Yeah, wow,” Yanan remarks. “We’re gonna be like.. related.”

“Yeah,” Wooseok affirms with a nod. Kino was lucky Wooseok was too embarrassed to deny anything in that moment. 

“It’s weird because I always thought your family wasn’t from here,” Yanan recalls. “My sister told me she and your cousin got close because she took him to a bunch of local restaurants and stuff.”

“Um,” Wooseok mumbles, suddenly wishing he had Kino’s newfound ability to lie to people’s faces without a second thought. 

“Wooseok actually isn’t from here either,” Kino says, cutting Wooseok off. “His parents moved their family to the city, like, right before high school.”

“Oh, huh,” Yanan acknowledges with a tiny nod. “Well, enjoy the party guys. I’m gonna go check on my grandmother.”

Kino and Wooseok both smile and return his dismissal cheerfully, but once Yanan has turned his back, Wooseok knits their fingers together and begins to pull Kino toward the exit. Kino just accepts this, squeezing Wooseok’s hand until he’s dragged them both back through the parking lot to his car. 

“So, do you think he also checks on his boyfriend when he checks on his grandmother or–”

“What the fuck was that?” Wooseok snaps, cutting Kino off in the middle of his joke. He just leans forward and rests his skull into his hands in defeat for a few moments. “Why am I constantly having to ask you what the fuck is happening?” 

“I had to come up with an excuse for being there! It was the first thing that came to mind,” Kino explains. 

“That was the first thing to come to your mind? Not that we’re friends or coworkers, but that we have a _literal_ blood relation?” Wooseok criticizes. Kino shrugs sheepishly. Wooseok didn’t think Kino had had a rational thought in two days. “You know, you’re supposed to be the smart one.”

“It wasn’t a big deal–”

“Oh, because you can just block him on Instagram? Kino, this whole thing is making you crazy,” Wooseok says flatly. “Normally, I wouldn’t even be able to convince you to go in there–”

“You really don’t get it?” Kino asks. Wooseok raises his head to look at Kino. “I thought you were just too awkward to look for your link, but you really just don’t care if you meet your soulmate or not.”

“What does that have to do with _you_ telling Yanan I’m his new cousin-in-law?” 

“I want to meet my fucking link already,” Kino states plainly. “I’m _sick_ of being alone. I want to fall in love already. I don’t really care what I have to do to make it happen.”

Wooseok pauses like he has a lot to say to that, then he just doesn’t. Maybe he decided it wasn’t worth it, or maybe he just lost courage. 

“You really think of yourself as being alone?”

“I didn’t mean it like that–”

“Whatever,” Wooseok grumbles, putting his car into drive. He wished he could just escape the conversation altogether. “Where to next?”

Wooseok and Kino spend the afternoon attempting to disqualify the lawyer and the dentist. The dentist was easy enough. The dental office where he worked was open until 2 P.M. on Sundays, so Kino simply made Wooseok drive over there. They waited in the parking lot for about fifteen minutes until he came out, then Kino got out of the car and pretended he had been servicing the pizza place next door.

As soon as Kino had made eye contact with the dentist, Wooseok knew they weren’t a match. Kino’s face had fallen so quickly. He rushed back to the car, letting the dentist drive off in his range rover before they headed over to the cafe from yesterday. 

Lawyers didn’t typically have weekend hours, so Kino had been forced to rely on his old friend: the same message he’d copied and pasted to both Changgu and Jinho already. The lawyer agreed, and, after he’d arrived and he, too, was confirmed not to be Kino’s soulmate, Wooseok and Kino had recreated the scene they’d caused yesterday. Wooseok was beginning to wonder what the fictional version of Kino’s sweet, baby sister could possibly be up to. 

This all leads Kino and Wooseok back to Kino’s apartment, collapsed onto his bed as they awaited the start time of Kino’s final date of the weekend, this time with none other than Kino’s _nemesis_ , Yeo Changgu. 

“What if his human disguise wears off? I could see his third eye,” Kino hypothesizes dimly. Wooseok laid next to him, repeatedly throwing the tennis ball in his hands at the ceiling. Kino had told him to stop, warning him that the neighbors would be upset, but Wooseok hadn't listened. Kino knew this meant Wooseok was anxious, so he just let it go. He’d take the noise complaint. 

“He’s way more likely to have a tail than a third eye,” Wooseok mumbles. Kino sighs. It was easy to see Wooseok had a lot on his mind besides mocking Changgu. 

“Are you okay?” he inquires, sitting up so that he’s sitting with his legs crossed and facing Wooseok. 

“I’m great,” Wooseok lies. He threw the ball over and over and over again. Kino wonders if he really thought assaulting the ceiling was normal. Wooseok had resorted to bouncing this same ball because of _many_ topics over the years, from his grades to his job to his family. 

“Seriously, Wooseok,” Kino says sternly, grabbing the ball from him. Wooseok frowns and wiggles his fingers to ask for it back. Kino responds by placing the ball in his lap and knotting his hand together with the one Wooseok had stretched out to him. 

“I’m just– what are you going to do if he isn’t the guy?” Wooseok ponders. Kino paused. He hadn’t really expected Wooseok to be worried about _his_ love life, of all things. “Are you just going to go back to making eye contact with random diner patrons?”

“Maybe,” Kino admits with a shrug. “ _That’s_ what you’re upset about? Me looking at people at the diner?” 

“No,” Wooseok snaps. Kino isn’t convinced. 

“I know you don’t get it, but maybe if you tried actually looking for _your_ link–”

Wooseok snatches his hand back from Kino, invoking shock and a complete loss of his train of thought in Kino. Wooseok shakes it off. He didn’t have anything to say. Kino grits his teeth together, trying to remind himself that fighting with Wooseok was pointless. He’d regret yelling at Wooseok as soon as they stopped talking. 

”Look, it’s not shameful to look for your link,” Kino says finally. “I don’t know why you’re so against finding yours, but–”

“Can we talk about something else?” Wooseok begs. Kino clears his throat loudly. The hourglass counting down to Kino losing his last speck of patience was rapidly draining. 

“Whatever. I have to go get ready for my date,” Kino declares. Wooseok doesn’t reply. He doesn’t even move an inch. 

Once Kino’s locked himself in his bathroom, Wooseok crawls out of his bed and over to the living room. A part of him wanted to just leave, but he’d promised Kino he would be there waiting while Kino suffered through a date with Changgu. Wooseok had never broken a promise he made to Kino. 

For Wooseok, the next half hour is spent mainly staring at his phone, wondering what could _possibly_ take so long. Kino always took a long time getting ready. Wooseok had been known to get out of bed and leave the house within the same ten minute span, but Kino could never do that, not even to run errands. 

Still, though, Wooseok thinks every wait for Kino is worth it. It wasn’t just because Kino never had a single hair out of place and his outfits were all carefully curated as though he was expecting to meet Miranda Priestly on the street, either. It was because every wait for Kino meant they were going to spend the entire night together. 

Today isn’t any different, despite the circumstances. When Kino finally exits his room, Wooseok feels his entire throat dry up. 

“You look…”

Wooseok paused. Kino just blinks at him. His hesitation makes Kino want to go change. Wooseok contemplated sinking into earth upon realizing what he’s said. 

“Nice,” he decides, though it definitely wasn’t the first or second or third word that had popped into his mind. 

“Thanks,” Kino says weakly. 

They just stand there for a moment. Wooseok thinks it’s nice to have a second to figure out what the hell he’s going to say. Kino finds every second that goes by excruciating. 

“Listen, I’m sorry. It’s up to you how you want to approach your love life,” Kino offers awkwardly. He didn’t really know how to apologize when he didn’t feel like he’d done anything wrong.

“It’s not about–”

Wooseok pauses. Kino just looks at him, waiting for him to finish his thought. Wooseok can’t choke out the words. 

“No, you’re right. I’m sorry, too,” Wooseok says finally, letting whatever he actually wanted to say evaporate. “We should go.”

The drive there is a whole lot of quiet. Kino was still a little mad, and Wooseok was a lot embarrassed. It wasn’t a great combination. 

“He’s already here,” Kino complains as he checks his text messages once Wooseok has parked the car. “I feel like it’s a bad sign how much I’m dreading this.”

“Probably,” Wooseok agrees. “What’s your plan for when he’s not your link?”

“Don’t be so negative,” Kino snaps. 

“What’s the difference between what I said and what you said?” Wooseok laughs. Kino shrugs. 

“That you said it,” he admits with a sigh. “Should I play the little sister card again?”

Kino watches as Wooseok contemplates the suggestion for a minute. Kino hadn’t really expected Wooseok to think about it so much or even care at all, really. 

“You said you wanted to go on dates,” Wooseok reminds him. Kino nods. “You ditched your last two within five minutes. Maybe you should make this one last.”

Kino purses his lips together. 

“Maybe.”

When they enter the restaurant, the pair split up. Wooseok finds a booth in the bar area and settles in, ready to spend the next hour and a half playing games on his phone while Kino sees to his date. Kino heads back to the back corner of the building where Changgu had said he was sitting in a text.

Somehow, even though Kino had never gotten along with Changgu well, Kino still found himself wishing he would be his link. This was his last real chance. The last three candidates would require a roadtrip to even meet, and that meant, if one of them was Kino’s link, he would be trapped in a long distance relationship. He didn’t want that, and he didn’t want Madam Luna to just be a hack after all. He wanted to look Changgu in the eyes and hear all his thoughts. He wanted to realize they’d misunderstood each other in high school. 

When Kino sees Changgu for the first time, he’s fidgeting with the centerpiece on the table, completely distracted by the flowers and their petals and stems. Kino thinks he looks cute like that, overly concerned about ensuring that even the centerpiece is arranged perfectly. Detail-oriented was a good quality, Kino thought, mostly because it was one of _his_ qualities. 

“Hello,” Kino says, and he’s relieved to finally get the opportunity to make eye contact for the first time on his own terms. Changgu gasps as he pulls away from the flowers, clearly unprepared for Kino to have arrived when he did. 

“Ah, jeez,” Changgu murmurs. 

“Sorry!” Kino sings, smiling at Changgu. He was practically staring at him, burning holes in Changgu’s skin with his gaze as he desperately awaited Changgu’s eyes meeting his own. 

“No, that was all me,” Changgu assures him. He finally looks up, and it’s just like Wooseok told him all along. Nothing. Not a sound. Kino tries not to feel completely devastated, but that was hard. To put it in Wooseok’s terms, he hadn’t wanted to strike out again, especially since this play was game ending. Kino didn’t have any more options. He didn’t have another date to rush off to as soon as he left this one. Changgu had been his swan song, and here they were, out of tune. 

Still, though, Kino feels a little gooey looking into Changgu’s eyes. Changgu was successful. He was intelligent. If you factored out links, he was a prime boyfriend candidate. This, along with Wooseok telling him to stay, encourages Kino to tuck his phone into his pocket and abandon any thoughts of leaving early. 

“Gosh, it’s so good to see you,” Kino exclaims as he finally sits down across from Changgu. “How long has it been?”

“I don’t think we’ve seen each other since graduation,” Changgu recalls with a smile.

“Oh, you mean when I gave that awesome speech since I graduated top of our class?” Kino teases. Changgu laughs, which Kino is thankful for. He wasn’t sure if jokes about high school were appropriate. 

“It was a good speech. It would’ve been better if I gave it though,” Changgu says, playing along with Kino. Kino’s pleased to see he actually has a sense of humor. He’d imagined Changgu as stiff and awkward, unable to take a joke but not mean-spirited either. Essentially, Kino had expected him to be as interesting as a cardboard box. 

Dinner is a lot better than Kino ever thought it could be. He has fun listening to Changgu’s stories, even the ones he doesn’t totally understand since they have a lot of technical jargon. He listens to Changgu enthrall about patients and trips he’s taken and Kino never gets bored or annoyed at all. Kino was having a _nice time_ , and he didn’t even want to call Wooseok. 

Changgu makes a lot of bad puns and is overly enthusiastic, but he’s a lot kinder and more thoughtful than Kino remembered, though Wooseok would probably tell Kino Changgu was always like that. Kino had villainized Changgu in high school to motivate himself, even Kino could admit that. 

By the time they’re done with their food, Kino is thinking about date number two. He could have fun with Changgu while he looked for his link, couldn’t he? Hui was right; Life wasn’t meant to be wasted waiting around for your soulmate. They were just a bonus. 

“I swear, I’m always too full for dessert, but that little ice cream place a block from here looks so good,” Changgu confesses. Kino’s eyes light up at the mere mention. He _loved_ that place!

“Oh, god, you gotta try it!” Kino enthuses. “Whenever me and Wooseok went, it was awesome.”

“You and Wooseok? So that’s still a thing?” Changgu asks, fidgeting with his keys in his hands. 

“What?” Kino says, scrunching up his face in confusion. “Wooseok’s my best friend–”

“Oh, I know,” Changgu confirms with a laugh. “It’s just– don’t other guys find it a little off-putting when you have your other half already?”

“It’s not like that,” Kino insists. 

“I mean, it’s just intimidating,” Changgu explains. “I’m not a jealous person, but even I can see it’s basically like you already have a boyfriend.”

“We really don’t see each other like that,” Kino declares, and he’s a little surprised when he sees Changgu hesitate for a second. “I’ve always wanted to find my soulmate, and he’s obviously not my link.”

“Just like how I’m not your link?” Changgu says gently. Kino swallowed hard, suddenly swimming in regret. Changgu bit his lip as they both struggled with where to go from there. He turns and offers the waitress a grateful nod whenever she passes by to pick up the check, but that’s it. 

“Um, listen, Kino, I had fun tonight and all, but I think it’s really obvious that I’m not what you’re looking for–”

Kino scoffs dryly. How could this happen to him? Was he really being rejected by someone who he’d never even really liked? 

“Thank you for dinner,” Kino says softly. He immediately grabs his coat and makes a beeline out of the restaurant without even giving Changgu an actual goodbye. He passes through the bar, and he doesn’t so much as call out to Wooseok. Still, Wooseok notices and slides out of his booth, sprinting to keep up with Kino. When they’ve finally steadied their pace, Kino just makes groaning noises to express his distress. 

“What happened?” Wooseok asks. He sounded so concerned, panicked. Kino wishes Wooseok wasn’t like that all the time. He was so concerned and caring and kind. Fuck that. 

“I think I just got dumped on a first date with a guy who graduated salutatorian,” Kino explains. Wooseok’s eyes widened into shiny circles. Kino wished he could just turn him off. 

“ _You_?” Wooseok exclaims. Kino nods. 

“Me!” he yelps back.

“He’s an idiot. He would’ve been lucky to even breathe near you,” Wooseok assures him. 

“Well, in any case, he certainly wasn’t my link!” Kino says. At first it seems like he’s going to laugh, but his voice breaks at the end of his sentence. He was frustrated, expended. How could he not be? Madam Luna was right about Shinwon’s link. How could she be wrong about Kino’s? How could he be so wrong about every single person he approached?

“Kino…,” Wooseok begins. Kino just clenched his teeth to keep from saying something he didn’t mean. Anyone who met Wooseok knew he cared about Kino a lot, but he was useless in moments like this.

“It’s fine,” Kino says after taking a minute to breathe. He didn’t want a second-rate link. He didn’t want to meet his link if the time wasn’t right. He wasn’t going to cry because he wasn’t destined to be with somebody he’d disliked since he was fifteen. “We both know I would’ve been upset if my link was Yeo Changgu anyway.”

Wooseok laughs, shoving both of his hands into his hoodie pocket as they slowly made their way back to Wooseok’s car. Truth be told, this weekend was weighing him down to the point the idea of going back to work the next day had started to become appealing. 

“Maybe next week we should look for your link instead,” Kino suggests with a tiny smirk. Wooseok just bites his tongue to keep from saying something he’d regret. He was exhausted. This weekend was exhausting. The concept of a link was exhausting. Even Kino was exhausting, and Wooseok had never thought that before. 

“I don’t think so,” Wooseok says grimly. 

“Why not?” Kino ponders. “Listen, Wooseok, even though I’m disappointed, I’m not giving up on finding my link, and you should look for yours, too.”

Wooseok doesn’t respond. 

“Besides, I had fun this weekend. _A lot_ of fun, actually,” Kino admits. “I may not have met my link, but I got to hang out with you. That’s just as good.”

“Ha,” Wooseok croaks. “ _Just as good?_ ”

“Yeah, duh,” Kino affirms. “If I have to be lonely, I’m glad I get to be lonely with you.”

“Lonely _with_ me?” 

“Yeah, you know, until we meet our links–”

“I met my link already,” Wooseok confesses suddenly. He stops in place, crossing his arms across his chest. He knew they were in for an argument, so all he could do was brace himself for impact. 

“What? When?” Kino asks, mouth agape. He turns around to face Wooseok, and all Wooseok can see on his face is surprise and shock and confusion. Kino can’t quite figure out why Wooseok is painted with worry and sadness. 

“Months ago,” he admits. He was closely inspecting the gravel beneath their feet, focusing on it so intently Kino genuinely wondered for a moment if he saw something of note. 

“ _Months ago_? Wooseok, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you _introduce me_?” Kino interrogates, firing off questions as quickly as he could form them as he processed what Wooseok was telling him. 

“I can’t introduce you to somebody I barely know,” Wooseok mumbles. He wished there was a lower volume than the one he was using. He wished he could be anywhere but here. 

“What?” Kino whispers. That’s all he has to offer: one, single word. It almost pissed Wooseok off. Could he really be so _fucking_ oblivious? 

“I don’t know him. I haven’t hung out with him. I have ignored dozens of messages at this point,” Wooseok states, finally raising his head. His frustration was somehow more powerful than anything his sadness or anxiety could muster up at the moment. 

“Why would you do that?” 

Wooseok takes a deep breath. It felt like if he didn’t say what he needed to say now, he never would. So, he does. 

“Because I don’t want to hang out with him. I want to hang out with you,” Wooseok says. Kino just shakes his head in response. 

“I’m _always_ going to be here, Wooseok–”

“Until you find your link,” Wooseok points out, cutting Kino off in the process. “That’s the difference between us, Kino. You have always wanted some fantasy guy who you’ve been building up in your head your entire life just because that’s what TV and books and movies tell you you should want. _I_ have only ever wanted _you_.”

“Me?” Kino says, voice cracking in the process. They can both see his eyes are filling with tears faster than he can blink them away, but Wooseok doesn’t stop. He can’t. 

“You,” he confirms. “You never stop talking about how you _have_ to find your link because you can’t wait to fall in love. But you don’t need the stupid fucking link to fall in love, Kino. I am living proof you don’t need the stupid link.”

Wooseok starts to regret everything that he’s saying. Why couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut? Was it that hard to just shut up? He just didn’t know if he could live the rest of his life like this, in an endless cycle of wishing and yearning and hoping and getting his heart crushed over and over again. 

“What am I supposed to say?” Kino practically whimpers. Wooseok wasn’t used to hearing him like that, and, truthfully, Kino wasn’t either. He was stronger than this. He was letting Wooseok talk at him without giving his side. Why was he letting that happen? Why was he letting Wooseok make him out to be the bad guy? “My parents were linked, Wooseok. My grandparents were linked. My _great_ grandparents were linked. I don’t know anything else besides this, okay? This is the _one_ thing in my life that has always been certain. No matter what, I have always known that the person I’m supposed to be with is out there, and I’d know when I met them. Why are you trying to take that away from me?” 

“I’m not taking anything away from you!” Wooseok yelps. “I spent the past two days trying to make this happen for you!”

There’s a beat of nothing. No words or sounds or gestures. Then, Kino lets out a dry laugh, rubbing the heels of his hands against his eyelids. 

“I hate that that’s true,” he grumbles. 

“Of course it’s true,” Wooseok says with a sigh, carding his fingers through his hair. “I would do anything to make you happy because, when I look at you, I know I am never going to feel this way about anyone else. And I don’t have to read your mind to know how you feel. And I didn’t have to spend my entire life waiting for you. You were always here, and I have always felt this way. I am always going to feel this way.” 

Kino doesn’t say anything, just avoids eye contact at any and all costs. Hot tears start to burn paths into his cheeks, involuntarily pouring out of Kino’s eyes. Kino feels Wooseok’s thumbs briskly move across his cheeks, pushing away the tears. It’s no use; in fact, it makes Kino want to cry even more. 

“You know what the worst part is?” Wooseok whispers, softly tilting Kino’s head up so they can look at each other. Kino mouths a tiny _what?_ , but his throat is so dry he can’t make out the words. “I know you feel the same way about me.”

“It’s not that simple,” he wheezes. 

“Yes, it is,” Wooseok insists. “Honestly ask yourself, did you actually want to be with any of those guys we tested?” 

Kino shakes his head feebly. 

“And what is stopping you from being with me besides the fact you can’t read my mind?” Wooseok adds. Kino feels his entire body go cold. He knew immediately. He’d thought about it a hundred times before. The answer really was simple, and Wooseok knew it too. _Absolutely nothing_. 

“Wooseok, you _know_ who you belong with. You know exactly who god or the universe or whoever decides this stuff wants you to be with,” Kino argues through sniffles and hiccups. 

“I do,” Wooseok confirms, “and it’s you.”

“Wooseok–”

“That crazy lady on the boardwalk told you you went to high school with your soulmate,” Wooseok reminds him, “and unless you want to go stare into Changgu’s eyes some more, I’m starting to think she wasn’t talking about your link.”

Kino feels like he’s been hit by a bus. Wooseok was right; Madam Luna had never _once_ claimed she could find his link. She just told him she’d find Kino’s soulmate. Maybe for Shinwon that _was_ his link. Maybe for Kino, it wasn’t. 

“What if we break up?” Kino queries, as calmly as he can manage in that moment. Truthfully, even having the conversation they were having now, Kino found comfort in the warmth radiating off Wooseok, who was now so close Kino’s hands were pushed against his chest. 

“Not gonna happen,” Wooseok says decidedly. 

“Being with your link is the only way you know–”

“Have you met my parents?” Wooseok evidences. “They’ve been together for decades. They have two kids together. They are still madly in love.”

“Your parents aren’t linked?” Kino concludes, scrunching up his face in thought. Wooseok responds by shaking his head. Wooseok’s parents had certainly always seemed happy. In truth, they probably got along better than Kino’s own parents, who didn’t have much in common and frequently pursued their individual interests as a result. “Do they know who their links are?”

“They’ve never cared,” Wooseok explains. “Why search for your link if you found the person you want to be with?”

“That’s why you never looked for yours,” Kino realizes quietly. Wooseok nods. “They really don’t regret not finding their links?” 

“Not for a minute,” Wooseok promises. He takes half a step back and knots one of Kino’s hands with each of his own. “That’s all I want: to be with you and to not give our stupid links another thought ever.”

Kino pauses, and for the first time, he really lets himself think about how he felt about Wooseok. He thinks about all the days they’ve spent together, and he thinks about how he was at his happiest when Wooseok was with him. He thinks about how, if he had a glove compartment filled with keepsakes like Wooseok’s, they would all be from days they spent together. He knows then he doesn’t need a link. Kino already had his soulmate. 

“I want that, too,” Kino admits. “I want you.”

Wooseok sighs softly, pulling Kino close to him and affectionately meeting their lips. Kino feels like melting into him, somehow perfectly in tune with Wooseok as he untangled their hands so he could hold onto Kino’s waist. 

After Wooseok pulls away, Kino takes a few seconds just to look at him. He stares up at Wooseok, right into his big, sparkly eyes, and he doesn’t hear a thing. 

And, for once, he’s okay with that.


End file.
